On Jude Bellingham and his infectious football intelligence
Sometimes, players just seem to have the knack of being able to bring out the best in those around them.
The brilliant performances just keep on coming, whether for his club or his national team. Jude Bellingham, it is abundantly clear, is an exceptional young footballer. Well, hold the front page. There’s nothing particularly sparkling about this revelation, but what is really interesting about Bellingham is the effect that he seems to have on those around him.
“Football intelligence” is a strange thing. It is certainly not the same thing as academic intelligence, but it sometimes seems to come from somewhere approaching the same place. It’s presence of mind. Seeing angles that others—even other professionals—don’t even see. It’s about attempting something that looks audacious because it’s so unorthodox, but which on reflection starts to look like the most rational thing in the world to attempt for those with the moxie to try it in the first place.
Jude Bellingham’s football intelligence doesn’t just stretch to what this particular player does on the pitch. It extends to other players, as well. I noted during the 2022 World Cup that Bellingham seemed to bring the best out of players around him, as well. When he became imaginative with his use of the ball his team-mates did as well, and it could be seen in their 3-1 win against Italy in Marcus Rashford, who scored the pivotal third goal of the evening, giving England a 2-1 lead, with a degree of confidence, fluidity and self-assurance that has been markedly absent in his performances for Manchester United of late.
See, Jude Bellingham isn’t the only player out there with that football intelligence. These are professional players at the apex of the professional game, and part of the reason why they have made it as far as they have is that they also have this spark within them, somewhere. Under the right oversight and with the right players besides them, they are capable of creating magic.
But how they get to that rarefied point can be a complex business. Having a player who seems to see the game in a different way to others and who has the technical ability and physicality to be able to pull off what may at first look seem audacious seems to inspire similar lateral thinking, a broadening of peripheral vision, and bravery in team-mates, as well. And yes, it is sheer blind luck that this particular player was born in this particular country at that particular time. Extremely good luck, too.
England started their evening slowly, even falling behind during a first half in which they seemed to struggle to get a foothold. Bellingham drew the foul for the penalty kick that brought them level through Harry Kane. Level at half-time was a reasonable enough approximation of how the first 45 minutes had progressed, an even match between two excellent teams. But in the second half, England pressed down on the accelerator and left Italy in the dust. Italy!
So, England will be going to Germany next summer, and they deserve it. It’s pretty clear that they’ve been the best team in this group to this point—home and away wins against Italy seem to have proven that point, with the symbolism of having done this to the team who beat them on penalties in the final of the last iteration of this tournament in 2021—and their place in the finals has been pretty much assured for no little while.
Will it be enough to bring home a trophy? Well, there remain plenty of ways in which it could all still go wrong. But perhaps that’s just the rather too well-seasoned England-watcher in me speaking. This team is excellent, already improved on the World Cup, seemingly still improving, and with key players starting to really mesh together with that preternatural mutual understanding that only comes with getting to know each other better. And there’s still Bukayo Saka to add back to this mix, as well. Perhaps it might even turn out next summer that they didn’t even need home advantage in the first place.