Jude Bellingham: England's Rising Star at Euro 2024
Jude Bellingham is running out of new stages to conquer, so he keeps raising the stakes on the ones he already owns.
Another international tournament, another England campaign built around the Birmingham-born midfielder. Handed a starting role from the off, he drove England to a 4-2 victory over Croatia in their opening fixture, dragging the game up to his level when it threatened to drift. When Panama tried to turn the contest into a test of nerve, it was Bellingham who broke the deadlock, again finding a way through when others were still feeling their way into the night.
When England needed more than just control, when they needed personality, he and record-breaking captain Harry Kane supplied it. Both found the net in a breathless last-16 win over Mexico at the iconic Azteca Stadium, a tie that felt like a throwback to the chaos and colour of old World Cups. Bellingham didn’t just score; he ripped the game open, rattling in a quick-fire brace before half-time and sparking wild celebrations that felt as much about what he represents as what he had just done.
His temperament has been picked apart before, his swagger misunderstood by some as something more sinister. Yet that unshakeable self-belief is the very thing that has carried him from Birmingham to Madrid and into the centre of England’s universe. The “who else?” celebration that became a defining image of Euro 2024 was no accident. It was a statement.
Former England midfielder Danny Murphy, speaking to GOAL in association with BetWright, sees something rare in him. He talks about the complete package: athleticism, technique, fitness, an all-round game that already belongs at the very top. But the difference, the thing that separates him, is what’s going on in his head. Murphy places Bellingham in the company of Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen – that tiny group of English prodigies who arrived not just with talent, but with the mentality to own the biggest stages while still barely out of their teens.
Murphy watched him closely during Euro 2024, when England often laboured and ideas ran dry. Bellingham, he recalls, was the one still forcing the issue, still trying to bend matches to his will. The overhead kick, the crucial header in the opener – moments that swung games and, for a while, masked wider flaws.
What strikes Murphy most is the balance. Bellingham has the arrogance of the elite without the entitlement that can come with it. He doesn’t float through matches waiting for the game to find him. He hunts it. Murphy admits he found the pre-tournament debate about whether Bellingham should start – or even be in the squad at all – almost laughable. Not because others lack quality, but because Bellingham operates on a different tier and has already proved it when the lights burn hottest.
You don’t need to look only at England to see it. Walking into Real Madrid, into that dressing room, that pressure, and producing the season he did would be remarkable for any player, let alone one still shaping his early years. If this campaign has felt slightly off at times, injuries are the only real explanation.
For Murphy, the equation is simple: if Bellingham is fit, he plays. Anywhere. The position becomes secondary because his range of gifts lets him bend the role to his strengths rather than the other way around.
That edge, that visible belief, will never be to everyone’s taste. Some see arrogance and recoil. Murphy sees a player whose self-confidence never dilutes his work. The usual trade-off with stars – brilliance at one end, indifference at the other – doesn’t apply. He points to examples from the past, forwards who win you games but rarely track back or press, and notes that it doesn’t really matter when they deliver so often. Bellingham, though, gives you both sides: the match-winner and the relentless worker.
Right now, he looks like a footballer at full stretch, revelling in the responsibility, playing as if he can decide a tournament on his own. The critics who once wondered whether he should even be involved are being left behind, their doubts exposed by every driving run and decisive finish.
They questioned whether he belonged. He’s answering in the only language that counts at this level: by taking games, and tournaments, and making them his.
