Online Reporter
IT’S closer, now, than it’s ever been in 60 years.
Six decades of anguish and frustration, near misses and what-might-have-beens.
And it’s the two big beasts of the England camp who can get the Three Lions over the World Cup line.
Jude Bellingham’s growth as leader and inspiration of this England side may have been something we’ve been waiting for since the Brummie emerged seven years ago.
But it has taken manager Thomas Tuchel’s arrival to unlock the extra element, for Bellingham to move from a potential superstar into the real thing. At times, the duo may not have had an entirely harmonious relationship.
Tuchel had to apologise to the Real Madrid midfielder only last summer, after a talkSPORT radio interview in which he revealed his mother found some of Bellingham’s on-field behaviour “repulsive”.
And Bellingham responded with typical pugnaciousness to his manager’s public telling-off of the players after the win over Norway earned a semi-final showdown with Argentina.
Tuchel called his side’s performance “sloppy” while he also claimed they were “lucky”. But Bellingham brushed Tuchel’s claims off with a “whatever” when interviewed shortly afterwards.
He added: “Maybe he doesn’t know what it takes to play in those conditions against Erling Haaland, Nusa, Sorloth — that’s not an easy team to play against.”
But it is clear that the two do have a shared and relentless vision and focus now. A belief that the semi- final in Dallas is just the next stage of a journey that is meant to end on the outskirts of New York next Sunday. With Harry Kane lifting the World Cup trophy into the air at the MetLife Stadium.
Tuchel was appointed to be the missing piece in the England jigsaw. Gareth Southgate, over four tournaments, had taken England to within sight of the summit — semi-final, final, quarter-final, final. But not, quite, to the peak.
The German’s Champions League win with Chelsea over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in 2021 was a key factor for his arrival.
FA bosses saw him as the man with a plan, the cold-blooded tactician to inspire and devise a strategy in the biggest moments. With England, it is a two-headed strategy. One being Kane, of course. The best out and out centre-forward in world football.
And, increasingly, Bellingham, whose sometimes brash image is not in keeping with the reality.
Indeed, inside the England backroom team, if there was a poll of who is the most-liked of an extremely likeable group, Bellingham would win, hands-down.
A winner, too. As he showed in the Wembley Champions League Final for Madrid against his old club Dortmund in 2024.
Bellingham’s determination to do it his way, the right way, has been clear throughout his career.
Birmingham City through and through — he even appeared in the video launch for Blues’ planned “power station” new stadium and broke Trevor Francis’ record to become the club’s youngest player, just 38 days after his 16th birthday.
Bellingham could have waited for a Premier League giant to come in for him. Instead, aged just 17, he chose to move to Germany.
Dortmund, he knew, would be the stage for him to develop.
At times, he does get exasperated and explode. But that volatility is the edge he needs, the propulsion unit that allows him to make a difference when it really matters. – Sun.
