By Killer7 Go To PostVVD is too good. Doesn't he have a dream of playing for Madrid or Barca or something. Take him pls
I mean, he’s 28, so he’s probably going to see at least his peak years out here.
There have been plenty of moments recently to show that Jude Bellingham is not normal for his age. Here is one. On November 9, in a game at St Andrew’s, Bellingham of Birmingham City tackled Fulham’s Anthony Knockaert, who fell on him. A minor melee followed and it ended with Bellingham, a skinny 16-and-a-half years old, squaring up to Aleksandar Mitrovic, who has the build of a phone booth and 55 caps for Serbia. Bellingham did not back down, neither did Mitrovic, and referee Jarred Gillett booked both of them.
Refusing to retreat in that moment says something about Bellingham’s personality and bravery but there is far more to him than that. Just watch him play, running the game for Birmingham, and you will see why he is the most highly-rated player of his age in Europe.
This season has seen the arrival of the first 2002-born players into the major leagues: Eduardo Camavinga, born November 2002, a precocious holding midfielder for Rennes, and Ansu Fati, born in October 2002, Barcelona’s explosive new forward. But Bellingham is more than seven months younger than Fati and among the first in his age group taking his initial steps in the men’s game.
Bellingham only made his senior debut on August 6, 2019, playing in a League Cup game at Fratton Park. At 16 years and 38 days old, he was Birmingham’s youngest-ever first-team player. Since then, he has played out on the right, as a No 10, in holding midfield or at the heart of a 4-4-2. But wherever Pep Clotet has put him, he has played with the same instinctive football intelligence, technical skill and leggy grace. He already looks comfortable in the Championship and has already made himself one of the leaders of this Birmingham team.
Next summer, Bellingham could be one of the stars of the European Under-17 Championship in Estonia. England have three qualifiers in March to get there and Bellingham is the leader of Kevin Betsy’s young side. There are other very talented players too — Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott, Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, Celtic’s Karamoko Dembele — but Bellingham is ahead of the pack.
No one who has monitored his progress is at all surprised by how well Bellingham is doing. He joined Birmingham’s academy at age nine and was well-known in youth football circles soon after, standing out for his obvious gifts as well as the solid grounding provided by his family.
“He’s got everything,” says Daniel Dodds, the FA’s former talent ID manager for England’s under-15s to under-17s. “The way he moves; his technical ability. He’s incredibly bright in terms of football intelligence, tactical ability, tactical knowledge, knowing what to do, where to be. As good as anything I’ve ever seen, comfortably.”
Bellingham has long been the jewel in the crown of the Birmingham academy, benefiting from Kristjaan Speakman and Stuart English’s focus on developing individuals rather than just winning games. The head of a rival academy remembers Bellingham running the game against his side in a Floodlit Cup match at the age of 14 before returning last season after a growth spurt, starring for the under-23s at the age of 15. He marvelled at his “high-order skills”, his ability to play between the lines, receive the ball side-on and drive forward with it.
There were times last season when Garry Monk would bring the 15-year-old Bellingham along in his first-team match squad, to show him the demands of that environment. But it has only been this season under Clotet that Bellingham has shown what he is capable of.
“Nothing surprises me with the boy. He’s that good,” says Dodds. “A 16-year-old shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, playing week-in week-out in the Championship, doing as well as he is. But because it’s Jude, it doesn’t really surprise you. Birmingham probably didn’t expect him to accelerate as quickly as he has done, but it just says everything about the player, his potential and what he’s going to do.
“He’s playing in the Championship, playing in midfield — not out wide or being hidden or coming off the bench — he’s actually starting in midfield and, when I’ve seen him, dominating. For a 16-year-old, it is crazy.”
The England set-up are not surprised by Bellingham’s progress either. They have known how good he was for years.
Back in the summer of 2016, the England staff were starting the process of getting their under-15 squad together. This starts with identifying 75 players they want to assess, then three groups of 25 train at Loughborough in the summer. But they took the unusual step of bringing up four under-14s into that group: Dembele, Musiala, Amadou Diallo of West Ham, and, of course, Bellingham, who had just turned 13.
In October that year, they narrowed it down to 52 players — two groups of 26 — for training at St George’s Park. And then, in December 2016, England’s under-15s played two games against Turkey at St George’s. Bellingham, Musiala and Dembele made their England debuts, one age group up.
“They almost had a year advantage,” explains Dodds. “We just felt Jude and two or three other boys would have real future senior international opportunities. We felt rather than wait a year, let’s bring them in a year early, and get them acclimatised to the England DNA early. So we did that with those four, and they’re still in and around it. They are probably the big hitters of the under-17 group now.”
Dembele first came to the attention of England scouts at the Youdan Trophy in Sheffield in July 2015. Born in London but playing for Celtic, he was eligible for both Scotland and England. In October 2016, he represented Celtic under-20s at the age of 13, and by that time, as well as representing Scotland under-16s, he was part of the England system. He came on the October 2016 training camp and made his debut alongside Bellingham in December.
“We knew he would be qualified for us, being born in London,” explains Dodds. “So we invited him to come to the training camps with the 2002s. He moves really, really well. He’s technically very good on the ball and in one-v-ones. He’s a high-flyer for his age group.” On December 12, Dembele came on in a Europa League game for Celtic at Cluj, his second senior appearance, still two months before his 17th birthday, his first coming as a substitute against Hearts in May.
Musiala was another player who was eligible for a different country, having been born in Germany before moving back to England and joining the Chelsea academy. He was another who was brought up a year to play under-15s football at the age of 13 and also made an instant impression, scoring on his debut and never looking back. “He’s technically very good,” explains Dodds.
“He was going through a lot of growth — which he still is now — but he scored an awful lot of goals. As a 2003, he scored in the friendlies with the 2002s. We felt he was going to be a long-term player who would score a lot of goals for us, and had a lot of technical ability.” Earlier this year, Musiala left Chelsea to join the academy at Bayern Munich, joining up with Miroslav Klose’s under-17 squad.
Put those three together and you have the stars of a generation just as exciting as the 2000s with Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Callum Hudson-Odoi. They have played with Musiala as the No 9, Bellingham as the No 10, and then Dembele and Diallo coming in off the wings, although that is starting to change.
In recent games, the England under-17s have decided to move Bellingham back into a deeper midfield role. Not to protect the back four but because they want to make the best use of his tactical intelligence and passing range, helping his individual development while also allowing him to see the game in front of him, rather than taking the ball on the half-turn. England wanted to have their creative players in central midfield so they could play forward more often. The goal is to play a brand of dominant football, with risky build-up from the back, that is becoming the new “England DNA”.
In April this year, when this group were still the England under-16s, they played Brazil in a game in France. They controlled it from beginning to end. The Brazil players, not used to seeing so little of the ball, lost their composure, and two of them were sent off, one for a petulant stamp on the back of Dembele’s leg as he lay on the ground. England won 4-0.
In September, they competed for the Syrenka Cup in Poland. In their first game, they beat Finland 5-0, Musiala and Bellingham both scoring before a remarkable fifth goal in which England played almost 30 passes; Bellingham drove the team forward and then Louie Barry chipped an assist, which Xavier Simons volleyed in.
England beat Austria 4-2, with two goals from Liam Delap and in the final, they drew 2-2 — Musiala scored again — before winning the penalty shoot-out.
Their next task is the European Under-17 Championship, for which they have qualifiers against Georgia, Romania and Belgium in late March 2020. If they qualify, then at the end of this season, they will go to Estonia for a tournament which England last won in 2014. But however they do, they will rely on far more than just their star names of Bellingham, Musiala and Dembele.
Another potentially key player is Elliott, who left the Fulham academy for Liverpool earlier this year. At Fulham, they used to rave about his “Premier League touch” and his receiving skills. He is a creative player who stands out for his vision, creativity, and a game intelligence that is far beyond most youngsters of his age. Jurgen Klopp is impressed and Elliott started all three of Liverpool’s Carabao Cup games this season, including the penalty shoot-out victory against Arsenal.
Or there is Louie Barry, who was at the West Brom academy before leaving for Barcelona this summer. He is rated as a natural goal machine. Not the biggest physically but wiry and aggressive, with an unshakeable appetite for scoring, and a mentality that means his head will not drop if he does miss a few chances.
“They were very good when they came to the camp. You could see a good nucleus,” said Dodds. “You are lucky if you get two or three out of a group who have the potential to play as a senior international. But that group had three, four or five that potentially could do.”
Take them all together and they underline what has been promised by the class of 2000: that England’s youth development is now as good as anyone else in Europe. That is the legacy of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). There are plenty of criticisms of EPPP but by strengthening the hands of their best academies, and giving them more time with their talented players, they have helped to bring through a new generation of English players unlike any we have seen before.
This is why they have proven so attractive to Europe’s biggest teams. Some of those clubs have realised that if they want young players who combine athletic prowess and technical skill, they are better off looking in England than at home. Especially with so many of this generation of English teenagers being specialists in one-v-ones, they bring an explosive flair lacking in many European academies.
The rules regarding transfers for young players, able to move between EU countries at 16 rather than 18, sometimes only for FIFA’s limited training compensation, makes it cheaper too. The Premier League’s Category One academies, who have been signing teenagers from Europe for years, suddenly find themselves on the other end of the equation. As one well-placed source puts it, “The hunters have become the hunted.”
That is why Musiala has gone to Bayern, Barry has gone to Barcelona, Noah Ohio to RB Leipzig (from Manchester City), and why most England games at youth levels are swarming with scouts from Europe’s elite. Real Madrid were interested in Elliott before he went to Liverpool, while Bayern and Borussia Dortmund were both keen on Bellingham, who has stuck with Birmingham.
Brexit may mean that future generations, born in 2004 and after, never get that opportunity. But right now, England’s teenagers are the stars of Europe.
By FortuneFaded Go To Post
By Fergie Go To PostGod I really need a photoshop of Ole onto Partridge’s book
Definitely did go a long way today Ole.
what a time to be a liverpooler
what an amazing time
finally we will never again hear about that fat spaniard
what an amazing time
finally we will never again hear about that fat spaniard
Obvs will never love Liverpool but god TAA is wonderful.
It’s an age since someone who is actually good at crossing has graced the game.
It’s an age since someone who is actually good at crossing has graced the game.
imagine how laboured must feel
spent his youth seeing manchester red dominate and is now old enough to see liverpool become incredible and manchester red go down in flames and marketing
#pray4thisman
spent his youth seeing manchester red dominate and is now old enough to see liverpool become incredible and manchester red go down in flames and marketing
#pray4thisman
Rashford is obv on a hot streak with his scoring, but it's clear that he's developed his game a lot this season. He's not a natural finisher, but he's using his pace very effectively and making runs that he didn't last season. Turning into a fine player. Still just 22 as well. Should be looking to get into the high teens and maybe 20+ league goals this season.
Every time I see Greenwood play I'm more convinced that he'll be world class. He has everything a forward needs bar lightning acceleration. But his excellent close control and awareness makes up for it. Lots of comparisons with Rashford for obvious reason. But Greenwood is a far better footballer at that age than Rashford.
Every time I see Greenwood play I'm more convinced that he'll be world class. He has everything a forward needs bar lightning acceleration. But his excellent close control and awareness makes up for it. Lots of comparisons with Rashford for obvious reason. But Greenwood is a far better footballer at that age than Rashford.
By FortuneFaded Go To PostRidiculous, he's been good for a very long time now.
By Mystikal McGhee Go To Postimagine how laboured must feelHe still got RGB lights.
spent his youth seeing manchester red dominate and is now old enough to see liverpool become incredible and manchester red go down in flames and marketing
#pray4thisman
By Pennywise Go To PostHe still got RGB lights.I forgot he is a man of culture, a PC gamer.
A tru hentai gamer.
A Death Strand.
Klopp back at Dortmund when?
By Cleff Go To PostRashford is obv on a hot streak with his scoring, but it's clear that he's developed his game a lot this season. He's not a natural finisher, but he's using his pace very effectively and making runs that he didn't last season. Turning into a fine player. Still just 22 as well. Should be looking to get into the high teens and maybe 20+ league goals this season.Greenwood is yet to really showcase his right foot and his all around game. Right now he's just keeping it simple, and then scoring with his left when the chance comes. He actually has a fantastic weight of pass when giving a through ball to teammates, and the ball can stick to his feet when dribbling. Think the latter will take off when his confidence goes up and he becomes physically mature. Actually right now Rashford had yet to debut for United at Greenwood's age. Another month would be the equivalent of Rashford's debut age.
Every time I see Greenwood play I'm more convinced that he'll be world class. He has everything a forward needs bar lightning acceleration. But his excellent close control and awareness makes up for it. Lots of comparisons with Rashford for obvious reason. But Greenwood is a far better footballer at that age than Rashford.
How long is Trent's contract? He has the whiff of 'cheap move to Madrid with a year left' about him
Reckon he's such a talent that we should be renewing it every year and not letting it get below 4
Reckon he's such a talent that we should be renewing it every year and not letting it get below 4
By KidA Seven Go To PostGreenwood is yet to really showcase his right foot and his all around game. Right now he's just keeping it simple, and then scoring with his left when the chance comes. He actually has a fantastic weight of pass when giving a through ball to teammates, and the ball can stick to his feet when dribbling. Think the latter will take off when his confidence goes up and he becomes physically mature. Actually right now Rashford had yet to debut for United at Greenwood's age. Another month would be the equivalent of Rashford's debut age.I think his teammates still have some hesitancy in passing to Greenwood. He often finds himself in good positions but isn't passed to. We'll see more of his playmaking skills when he starts receiving more of the ball. It's a great sign that he doesn't stick to his wing however. He's almost forcing his team to play him the ball on more central areas. We're not a good side, but I've hope that we can be one day with players like Greenwood developing and Rashford hopefully now establishing himself as a too PL player.
Speaking of top PL players, Martial could be one of them of he was as committed in every game as he was today. His finishing and link up play has always been good, but today he led the forwards when we were pressing Newcastle and he made a lot of good off the ball runs to stretch their defence. That's the aspect of his game he's always struggled with. More of that please
Only bad part about my new job is that i can't watch the weekday footy games anymore.
What happened to the lad Holding, hasn't even appeared on the bench.
What happened to the lad Holding, hasn't even appeared on the bench.
By Wahabipapangus Go To PostDo you not remember him, or are you surprised?I think dissonance is one of the youngest slaenters, so I assume doesn't remember
By Wahabipapangus Go To PostDo you not remember him, or are you surprised?The latter. I didn't start paying attention to football until after the 2010 World Cup.
By Perfect Blue Go To PostThe latter. I didn't start paying attention to football until after the 2010 World Cup.So the former?
By FootbalIFan Go To PostSo the former?I suppose if one can remember something he didn't ever know lol. Don't think I recall ever knowing Macheda existed.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/10616594/man-utd-guillermo-varela-copenhagen-tattoo-van-gaal-mourinho/
Please do buy him back. Will take 6 mil.
Please do buy him back. Will take 6 mil.
By FortuneFaded Go To PostHe's no scouse Cafu
You have been banned for the following reason: User Banned (2 Weeks): Inflammatory drive-by in a thread on concerns of representation.
Because I said a movie character was badly written 😂 imagine these people in real life lol
Because I said a movie character was badly written 😂 imagine these people in real life lol
By n8 dogg Go To PostRaiders of the lost Ark on BBC1 ladsLet me know when the snake scene appears
By batong Go To PostLet me know when the snake scene appears
bitch u missed it
By Frustrated_me Go To PostYou have been banned for the following reason: User Banned (2 Weeks): Inflammatory drive-by in a thread on concerns of representation.
Because I said a movie character was badly written 😂 imagine these people in real life lol
By Facism Go To Post
I'm Ethan looking unimpressed and depressed, but still along for the ride.
By Facism Go To PostContext?
By Wahabipapangus Go To PostWhy are these people always so unattractive
By Perfect Blue Go To PostWhy are these people always so unattractiveAttractive people don't share.
By Lupercal Go To PostAttractive people don't share.You ain’t kidding. Not for me, Clive
