What were you doing at age 17? Jude Bellingham was scoring a crucial opener in a Champions League quarter-final second leg with the world watching.
He isn’t old enough to sample those man-of-the-match bottles of champagne, or even watch Martin Scorsese’s The Departed or Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
So to watch the way he scored against Manchester City here, at his tender age, was remarkable. So cool. So confident.
He controlled the ball with his left foot, opened up his body, then found the top corner with his right foot.
He had that picture in his mind of what to do in order to score. Then he went and produced an off-the-line clearance to stop Riyad Mahrez making it 1-1 before half-time.
So he’s pretty handy in both boxes. This all bodes well for England. Not just for Euro 2020 but for the foreseeable. We don’t see Bellingham every week, so not everybody knows much about this teenager.
But he did enough in these two games against City to show why Gareth Southgate is giving him a shot.
There must be executives at English clubs wondering how and why they missed out on Bellingham when Borussia Dortmund signed him for £30million from Birmingham City. At that price, he was surely worth a punt.
It might prove to be a snip in the future if he can continue to progress.
Against a side like City, Dortmund were always going to be up against it, even if they were at home. But Bellingham gave them a very good start.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com