The Beatles released Hey Jude a couple of months after Euro ‘68, when two of the four semi-finalists were Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Tonight, over half a century later, it will ring out in Frankfurt as England play Denmark in the European Championships – and it will be the anthem of a single player.
So what? Step forward, Jude Bellingham. Football’s global appeal gives it a rare ability to catapult an individual to the status of cultural phenomenon and Bellingham, a 20 year-old from Stourbridge in the Midlands, is practically there. He’s set to be this generation’s Beckham.
He’s already better. David Beckham struggled to adapt to life at Real Madrid, seen by many as the world’s most intense and demanding football club. But Bellingham has had no trouble living up to his £12 million a year salary. He swiftly became the lynchpin of a Madrid side that swept all opposition aside to win a domestic and European double.
Bellingham in numbers
36 – goals and assists for Real Madrid since joining the club last summer, winning La Liga’s Player of the Season and the Kopa Trophy for best young player in the world.
22 – Birmingham retired his shirt number after he left for Borussia Dortmund aged 17. The gesture, which raised eyebrows at the time, is usually reserved for club legends.
3 – he’s the youngest European player to play in three major international tournaments, and one of only two players to score at the Euros and the World Cup before turning 21. (The other was Michael Owen.)
Iron fist, velvet glove. Bellingham is the ‘complete’ player, a 6’1” goalscoring midfielder who controls the game with skill and strength, and has been compared with Bobby Moore, Zinedine Zidane, and Paul Gascoigne. His youth belies his self-assurance, as Filip Kostic found out on Sunday. Caught in slow motion, Bellingham shoulder-barged the Serbian winger as if to tell the 31 year-old that a 20 year-old was boss.
Kim K’s poster boy. Bellingham had the most touches of any player in England’s win against Serbia last Sunday, and off the pitch he’s everywhere too. Last week he was announced as the face of Skims, Kim Kardashian’s $4 billion clothing brand. Pictures of Bellingham kicking a football in his Skims underwear have the air of Beckham’s Armani ad at the height of Posh & Becks.
And there’s more. Bellingham has also signed deals with Lucozade, Louis Vuitton and Adidas. On the eve of the Euros, Adidas released a video of Bellingham set to Hey Jude, a show of his power given the cost of licensing Beatles songs. Stormzy, Ian Wright and Beckham (who used to be Adidas’ star endorsee in a deal worth $160 million) played supporting roles to Bellingham, now the brand’s top athlete.
About that song. Spotify streams of Hey Jude spiked after the Serbia match, when 15 million Brits heard an offkey strain fill the Arena Auf Schalke after Bellingham’s winning goal. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have backed it to be the anthem of the summer. Bellingham says he likes hearing it as his music taste is a “bit old”.
Down to earth. For all his on-field swagger, Bellingham is unfailingly polite off it. His mum comes to all his big games and he got his pre-tournament haircut at his regular barbers in Birmingham.
Steady on. The Adidas ad opens with a compilation of all the times the England team has fallen short, with fans and players staring into the middle distance. Among them is Beckham, whose performance for the national team never matched his stardom. Bellingham could be England’s longed-for redeemer, but we all know it’s the hope that kills you.
What’s more… The Euros’ top scorer so far isn’t Bellingham. It’s his friend and former teammate Jamal Musiala, who played for England at youth level and is now Germany’s wunderkind. He may yet have a say in Bellingham’s tilt for glory.
This article was amended since publication.
