Jude Bellingham's Impact on England's World Cup Journey

There was a time, not long ago, when people wondered whether Jude Bellingham should even be in Thomas Tuchel’s squad for another major tournament. North America had not been kind to him, the noise around his form growing louder with every flat display.

Now look at him.

With Morgan Rogers snapping at his heels for the No.10 role and big names like Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Morgan Gibbs-White left at home, Bellingham arrived under a harsher glare than most. A Real Madrid “Galactico”, parachuted into a side that demanded instant answers. If there was a player England fans were ready to scrutinise, it was him.

He has answered in the only language that matters. Goals. Moments. Games grabbed by the throat.

The “who else?” celebration that lit up Euro 2024 was no one-off. In this World Cup cycle he has doubled down on that persona, the man who steps forward when the air gets thin and the stakes go up. His first World Cup goal for 2026 came at exactly the right time, restoring England’s lead in a 4-2 win over Croatia and settling the nerves of a nation that has seen too many opening games go sideways.

That was the spark. What followed has been a campaign shaped in his image.

Against Panama, in a tight, scrappy contest, it was Bellingham who broke the deadlock. One chance, one ruthless finish. No fuss, no flinch. The kind of goal that changes not just a match but the mood around a team.

Then came Mexico in the last 16, at altitude, in the cauldron of the Azteca Stadium, with a home crowd roaring for an upset. This is where reputations crack. Instead, Bellingham’s hardened. A quickfire brace turned a dangerous evening into one of England’s standout World Cup victories, a statement win at FIFA’s flagship event carved by a 23-year-old who refused to be suffocated by the occasion.

He is not just producing numbers; he is delivering flashpoints. Those sudden surges, those runs that rip through the middle of the pitch, echo the wild, unpredictable brilliance of Paul Gascoigne and Wayne Rooney. The comparison is not lazy nostalgia; it is rooted in what he is doing on the biggest stage.

Former England defender Des Walker sees it clearly. Speaking to GOAL in association with Wiz Slots, he did not bother with caveats: “He comes to the party, Jude, in the important games, in the important moments. That's what Rooney does, that's what Gazza does, that's what all great players do.”

Walker went further, homing in on what separates Bellingham physically from almost everyone else: “He is the best athlete, probably in the world, in terms of the amount of running he can do and the power that he has from the first minute to the last minute.”

That power is not wasted on pretty patterns. It is directed, coldly, towards the penalty area.

“When Jude goes in the box, he goes in for one reason,” Walker said. “He doesn't go in to make up the numbers, he goes in to get the goal. And I think that's a fantastic thing to have in your team, because the onus isn't just on Harry [Kane]. Jude will, in every game he plays, go to score a goal. And with his power, his athleticism and his will to win, it puts him in that category of the best in the world.”

This is not a player hiding from the spotlight. He is running towards it.

Pressed on whether Bellingham actively enjoys being thrust under that glare, Walker did not hesitate. “Definitely. He is the main man. He revels in trying to be the main man. I think that's what inspires him. He wants to be the show-off, the big head.”

The key, of course, is that the showmanship lives where it matters most: on the pitch.

“That's all good being the big head and the show-off, but you've got to be big-headed and show-off on the pitch. He does that, and that's his strength,” Walker added. “I think when you try to curtail that, we call it arrogance in sport, you need arrogance. You try to curtail that from him, you're taking away half his game.”

Every dressing room has seen the other type. Walker knows them well: “Because there's plenty of players, we've all seen loads of players that are off the park, they've got the biggest mouth in the world, they're cocky, they walk around like they're the best footballers in the world. Come Saturday afternoon, when you're playing the real tough teams, the big teams, sometimes they go missing. Jude doesn't go missing.”

He hasn’t gone missing for a second of this campaign. In a tournament framed by 60 years of English frustration, Bellingham has stepped into the gap where past generations have shrunk. The burden of history has not bent him; it has sharpened him.

Harry Kane, the record goalscorer and captain, remains the reference point up front, the talisman who has carried this side through so many nights. But the emotional engine, the player dragging England up the pitch with that unshakable belief, is a Birmingham-born midfielder cut from the same fearless cloth as Rooney and Gascoigne.

If this is finally the summer when those decades of hurt are torn up, the story will not be written in cautious strokes. It will be written in Bellingham’s stride, his stare, his refusal to step aside when the game starts to burn.