England’s Jude Bellingham (left) with Callum Wilson and Kalvin Phillips during a training session. Reuters
England’s teenage midfielder Jude Bellingham’s fan base is growing steadily ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Former England captain Steven Gerrard believes the 19-year-old will be a “superstar” for the Three Lions over the next decade.
“The tournament is going to be littered with high-class players,” Gerrard said of Qatar 2022.
“Jude [Bellingham], I’m a massive fan of his. I think in the next 10 to 15 years, he’s going to become an England superstar.”
The former Liverpool and England great was speaking at Hyundai’s Goal of the Century sustainability campaign.
The Borussia Dortmund teenager’s addition to the team under Gareth Southgate will strengthen the midfield, Gerrard said.
“I love the midfield area now with [his] introduction. I really like our front half. I think the big challenge for England is whether we can find the right personnel and find the right partnerships in defence.”
Considered as one of his generation’s greatest players, Gerrard was himself a central midfielder for Liverpool and the England national team, captaining both.
Bellingham’s talent was apparent from young age. Son of Mark Bellingham, a prolific goalscorer in non-League football, the junior Bellingham became Birmingham City’s youngest-ever first team player when he made his senior debut at the age of 16. In July 2020 he joined German club Borussia Dortmund.
Following a good start to the season in both the Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League, hopes are high that Bellingham can help England win the World Cup after 1966.
Many consider Bellingham to be Southgate’s trump card at Qatar 2022.
“Bellingham had got everything,” said a highly impressed England teammate Luke Shaw.
“The one I’ve been most surprised about when he first got involved is Jude,” the Manchester United and England defender told England’s Lions’ Den programme.
“He can do everything in that middle. He can drive with the ball, he can pass, he’s aggressive. He’s got everything. When I first saw him when he was first involved in the England squad, even then I thought, ‘Wow, this guy is going to be so good, and he already looks like a man’.”
Bellingham became Dortmund’s youngest-ever captain in October this season.
“He’s becoming more a man, when you look at him and his strength. He’s captaining his club and I think it’s showing, the steps that he’s taking are leading him in the right direction,” Shaw said.
With a good showing at Qatar 2022, the whole world will take note of England’s rising star and there will be many takers for the prodigious young talent.
Bellingham’s German club seems to have understood this.
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said his side would be powerless to compete with Europe’s elite for Bellingham.
“We will have talks (with Bellingham) when the World Cup is over. We will ask him whether he wants to stay or go,” Watzke told the German tabloid Bild last week.
Watzke has been in charge of Dortmund since 2005.
“However, if big European clubs come, we can’t afford a big financial fight.”
Before that expected financial fight, however England’s opponents at Qatar 2022 will have a tough time against Bellingham.
England face Iran in a Group B tie tomorrow before taking on United States on November 25 and Wales on Nov 29.
