Real Madrid always seemed destined to win a 15th European Cup last weekend — and the manner of their 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund could hardly have been more predictable, the German side missing a host of chances before paying an inevitable price — but Jude Bellingham’s story added enormous intrigue to an otherwise unsurprising outcome.
Bellingham, the Stourbridge-born midfielder, not only won the biggest club trophy in football at the end of an astonishing debut season for Real, but did so against his former club Dortmund and in his national stadium, Wembley.
At just 20, he is already a European and Spanish champion (named the best player in Spain this season), and a leading contender for the Ballon d’Or, and he can still finish the campaign by helping England to a first major trophy since 1966 at this summer’s European Championship.
Understandably, there has not been so much buzz and expectation around an under-21 English player going into a major tournament since 18-year-old Wayne Rooney at Euro 2004, and already one of the biggest questions for Gareth Southgate, the England manager, is how best to use Bellingham in Germany.
By his own astonishing standards, however, Bellingham was quiet against Dortmund at Wembley on Saturday. He still finished with an assist — a simple pass for Vinicius Jr’s decisive goal — but his influence on the run of play was relatively trivial.
It was a similar story in both legs of Real’s epic semi-final win over Bayern Munich; in fact, after scoring in his first four Champions League appearances for Real in the group stage, Bellingham was subdued throughout the knockouts, which included two-legged wins over RB Leipzig and Manchester City.
To be clear, Bellingham is a worthy European champion and any criticism of his impact in the latter stages of the Champions League is nit-picking.
Still, in light of the extraordinary levels of expectation on his shoulders going into the Euros, it is worth remembering that Bellingham will not turn 21 until midway through the tournament.
He is already one of the world’s best players but, for all his quality and maturity, there is a case that he should not yet be expected to run a game for 90 minutes like, say, his Real team-mate Toni Kroos or be as consistently decisive in the final third as Vinicius Jr or England captain Harry Kane.
By any metric Bellingham has had an incredible year at Real but his goal return also tailed off in the second half of the season.
Before the turn of the year, he had scored 17 goals in 21 appearances for his new club. In 2024, he scored six times in the same number of games (including, admittedly, a last-minute winner against Barcelona).
You wonder how much the campaign has taken out of Bellingham mentally and physically, particularly in the context of the increasing strain being put on all elite players.
A recent study focused on young players cited Bellingham as an example of a footballer who may be putting their body under massive stress through the sheer volume of minutes spent on the pitch.
The study found that Bellingham has already played 18,486 minutes in his career, compared to the 3,929 for David Beckham and the 6,987 minutes Frank Lampard played at the same age.
Southgate has sensibly given Bellingham a week to recover from Saturday’s match and the aftermath, and he is not expected to feature in England’s second warm-up friendly against Iceland back at Wembley on Friday night, leaving him with just a week to prepare for their opening Euros game against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on June 16.
Bellingham will go into the Euros a little overworked and undercooked, but with the nation expecting him to deliver
Bellingham has so far made an elite football career appear ludicrously easy and perhaps he is not the type of player for whom it is necessary to dampen expectations and preach caution; generational talents tend to find a way to deliver, whatever the circumstances.
It must, though, have been a taxing season for Bellingham, who will go into the European Championship a little overworked and undercooked, but with the nation expecting him to deliver.
It would be understandable if he is not at his best, at least initially, so perhaps it is wise to temper expectations around the midfielder.
