Jude Bellingham is without a doubt one of the most promising talents in Europe right now. The Englishman is captaining one of the biggest clubs in Europe at just 19 years old. At his age many players are still figuring out how to fit in a professional team, most managers in European soccer keep their younger players benched for subs and or let them play in youth programs. It only makes sense to slowly progress younger players to the top level as they can become overwhelmed, get injured or lose confidence. Jude Bellingham is an exclusion though as he already has more experience in the Champions League than other players have in their late 20s.
Bellingham’s career started off in the England city of Birmingham. Jude joined Birmingham City’s under-8 squad and moved up in the ranks over the years. Jude made his U-18 debut at just 14 years old and their U-23 program at 15. After a while he eventually was moved to the first team squad and started traveling with the team. In the 2019-2020 season he became Birmingham’s youngest ever first team player at just 16 years old. Over the course of the season Jude became a regular on the team and before COVID hit he already had 32 league appearances. When the season began again, his team Birmingham City was on the brink of relegation and was also financially unstable. Jude helped carry a weak squad to save themselves from relegation and practically saved the club from bankruptcy. So in honor of what Jude achieved in such a short matter of time his number 22 for the club was retired at 16 years old! After such a great season it was no surprise that teams all over Europe had their eyes on this kid. Jude decided to go to Borussia Dortmund, who is a notorious club for their production of youth talent. Dortmund is also known for playing their youth players quite frequently which intrigued Jude even more. Dortmund and Jude came to an agreement in July of 2020 for a fee of around $25 million. In Jude’s first three months of his first season he became a regular in all competitions. He performed insanely well in the Champions League, even scoring against Manchester City but only for it to be taken away by VAR. During the rest of the season he outperformed what everyone thought and officially certified his name on the starting list.
Today, Jude is now captaining his Dortmund side after the main captain Marco Reus got injured earlier in the season. Jude has played a vital role at Dortmund and will hopefully help his team reach the knockout stages of the Champions League. The World Cup is also coming up later this year and Jude has already been called up for England and will most likely start for his home country’s side. At just 19 years old, captaining a giant European club and starting for your country is already such an accomplishment, I am very much excited to see the rest of Jude’s career and how he flourishes over time with experience and growth.
