During a post-match interview after Madrid knocked out Manchester City at the Etihad stadium in April, Rio Ferdinand voiced what many of us have long been wondering about Jude Bellingham. While the England midfielder calmly answered a complex question about the pressure and expectations surrounding Real Madrid, Ferdinand couldn’t help but interrupt to ask: “How's he answering these questions so eloquently? Tell me, how old are you bro?”
After laughing at the Manchester United legend's comment, Bellingham replied sheepishly: “still 20.”
Bellingham’s rise to the beating heart of the England squad has been stratospheric. But, as well as his undeniable talent, it is the 20-year-old’s staggering maturity and poise that have captured the nation’s attention. In January, he made headlines by giving a blanket to a shivering ballboy after Real Madrid’s victory at Arandina. And last month, after scoring the opening goal against Serbia in England’s maiden match at this year’s Euros, Bellingham dedicated his celebration to “the backroom staff who put in so much work every day, and [...] won't receive any awards like this or have the moments we get to have on the pitch.” In fact, it seems that everyone who has met or known him, has nothing but adulation for the England international.
Much of this, it seems can be put down to the influence of two very important people: Jude’s parents, Mark and Denise Bellingham.
Where most superstar international footballers are clients of elite international football agencies, Bellingham is managed by his father. A prolific goalscorer in non-League football and a former sergeant for West Midlands police, Mark Bellingham has overseen the success of his eldest child, and has established himself as one of the most pre-eminent figures on the footballing scene. Where once he once cut an intimidating figure across the amateur game in several Midlands teams, off the pitch the 48-year-old has helped transform the Bellinghams into one of the most powerful families in football.
Alongside his wife Denise, a HR professional who manages the financials, Mark has steered both Jude and his 18-year-old brother Jobe, who plays for Sunderland, on a journey from their native Dudley, in the West Midlands, to the Bernabeu, home of Puskas, Zidane and Madrid, where Jude now lives with his mother.
And the family’s approach has worked masterfully. The Madrid midfielder’s achievements and records are innumerable – last year he won both major awards for male footballers aged under 21 (the Golden Boy and the Kopa Trophy), he was Birmingham city’s youngest ever first-team player when he made his senior debut in August 2019, and was Real Madrid’s top league scorer in his first season for the club. Off the pitch, everyone wants a piece of Brand Bellingham – he has a deal with Gucci as well as Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS, and has the potential to match the sponsorship earnings of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
“Jude Bellingham is made up of amazing people," Bellingham said after England’s game on Sunday. "It's not just me. It's because I have such a great support network - my family, my friends, my team-mates. Playing football is the easiest part.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the Bellingham empire that could help England bring the Euro trophy home.
The “non-league Pele” – Mark Bellingham’s football career, and a side hustle in the West Midlands police
As role models go, having a father nicknamed the “non-League Pele” for his fearsome goal-scoring record is probably up there with as good as it gets.
During spells with at least 20 West Midlands clubs between 1994 and the 2019, Bellingham Senior, a Southend native, scored more than 700 goals, and became renowned as a penalty-box predator. His stint at Leamington saw him score 79 goals in 87 matches, including six hat-tricks.
“I’ve started to score a lot more tap-ins,” Bellingham Senior said in an interview with the Non-League Paper in September 2016. “I needed 38 goals last season (to reach 700) but got to 36 and was banned for the last game. With two needed to reach 700, it felt like there was unfinished business.”
“We talk about footballing heroes, and my dad was like my first,” Jude told the FA in an interview in 2021. “When you go and watch him play every week in non-league, you know it's not the Premier League or anything, but seeing the way that he played and the atmosphere, it made me fall in love with football so he was probably my first hero.
“That non-league style of toughness and being gritty when you need to be, I do think that comes from watching my dad play – even though he never tackled!”
At the same time as playing amateur football, Bellingham Senior was also juggling the demands of another full-time job – working as a sergeant in West Midlands police.
“I don’t know how he did it,” Jason Cadden, who managed Bellingham at Leamington in 2009, has said. “In evening games, the full-time whistle would blow and you’d see Mark sprint off. He’d jump in the shower, get in his car and start his police shift at 10pm.”
“He made goalscoring look simple. I’m sure he’d have done the same in the Conference, League Two, maybe higher.”
In 2005-06, Mark scored a staggering 61 goals for Stourbridge, a record that is yet to be beaten. “He could have played much higher,” Gary Hackett, Mark’s former team-mate and manager told the Daily Mail. “But Mark is a highly intelligent lad and probably realised his prospects were better in the police.”
Though a talented semi-pro player, Mark never quite managed to ascend to the professional stage, suffering two serious knee injuries and struggling to juggle the demands of the sport with his day job.
“I’m 40 now so I think this season will probably be my last,” he said in 2016.
A hands-on agent from day one
Unsurprisingly, it was Mark who facilitated Jude’s early footballing experiences. After picking up the sport at just four years old, Jude went on to join a children's team set up by his dad, Stourbridge Juniors. Then at age seven, Bellingham joined the academy of Birmingham City where he spent a decade.
“Mark, he was very, very clear with how he wanted support and communication,” says Kevin Betsy, who spent four years coaching Jude from age 13 for the England juniors. “He comes from the police background, so he's very clear and concise, very disciplined, and that reflects on Jude and Jobe”.
The Bellinghams gave up their evenings and weekends shuttling Jude and Jobe to practice for years, and Betsy would meet with both Bellingham parents every month to touch base.
“They wanted an open communication, making sure that our plan was clear to them on why Jude was selected for this particular camp, what he would be getting out of that camp, what was our plan, long term within the England pathway,” Betsy continues. “And those types of questions are not always asked by a high percentage of parents.”
Part of their strategy for Jude’s career was to keep him at his boyhood club for as long as possible, to prevent disruption to his education and to keep him grounded.
“They were very keen on their child living at home in Birmingham, training in close proximity to their home, to allow him to have as normal a childhood as possible, that was really important,” Betsy says. “They could have gone to many of the top clubs in Europe when Jude was 12 or 13, but they resisted those ideas – the teenage years with your child are important.”
“They were also very clear that Jude should get the appropriate amount of time to fulfil the educational commitments when he was with us,” Betsy explains. “It was fundamental to them that education was a huge part of his life, they were very strong on that. If there was ever a sign of any problems at school, with either behaviour or dropping academic grades, he wouldn’t be playing football. And that’s why he did so well at his GCSEs.”
Betsy also recalls Jude’s parents’ influence on his behaviour at a young age, describing him as an “exceptional human being.”
“Behaviour wise, he was exemplary, both around St George’s Park and at the hotels we stayed in abroad. He always be first to tidy up the hotel dinner areas, so the staff and waiters didn’t have to do too much. He would make sure the socks were turned the right way round for the kit man, little things like that. He was always very respectful.”
“They never got caught up in the hype” — behind the Bellinghams’ decision to keep Jude out of the Premier League
Another way that both Mark and Denise were instrumental in ensuring Jude’s success, was in making the crucial decision to send Jude to German club Borussia Dortmund.
From the moment Jude made his debut for Birmingham at age just 16, all the top-flight English clubs wanted a piece of him. Manchester United were among those vying for Bellingham’s signature, introducing him to Sir Alex Ferguson, Eric Cantona and Bryan Robson in order to try and seal the deal. But the Bellinghams had other ideas.
“They were always focused on his long term development and what was best for their son, not just the here and now,” says Betsy. “They never got caught up in the hype or the sort of, ‘my son's playing one of the top clubs in Europe.’ They were always focused on, ‘is Jude getting better? Is Jude enjoying it?’”
In 2020, Jude signed with Dortmund, on an initial £25 million ($33m) transfer, making him the most expensive 17-year-old in the history of the game. The decision was made in order to remove the young star from the often unforgiving UK tabloid spotlight, protecting his wellbeing, and to give him more experience on the pitch.
@espnfc Jude Bellingham’s commentary while getting help to put on his bow tie before the #BallondOr ceremony is too funny 😂🏆 (via @Real Madrid C.F.) #realmadrid #futbol #football #disney100
♬ original sound - ESPN FC
“It was a top decision,” says Betsy. “They weren’t bamboozled by the bright ideas of other clubs, the amazing proposals and presentations and the high level people him and his family might have met. Instead, they were focused on what opportunities the club would give their son.
“Amongst the top clubs in England to take Jude, how many of those clubs would have played Jude in their first team at 17 going on 18? They could have offered him a great financial package and all those things, but they wanted regular football in a really good league, to get him first team exposure in high pressure situations. They knew that Dortmund had a good history of that in Jadon Sancho.”
This is also why, last summer they again looked beyond the Premier League and opted for Real Madrid, signing with the team in June 2023 who bought him for €103m (£88.5m). He earns around £11.4m a year at Real Madrid, which equates to around £220,000 per week, double the £110,00 salary he earnt at Dortmund.
“This is the club [Real] I want to be at for the next 10 to 15 years,” Jude said in October last year. “I am loving it there.”
“Bellingham's decision to avoid going to United in 2020 and then to avoid going to Liverpool in summer 2023 has done him a world of good,” says Carl Anka, a football writer at The Athletic. “He avoids a lot of club rivalry aggro and tribalism and cracked on with being one of the best young players in the world.
“His move to Madrid, and subsequent inheritance of the number five shirt, which his idol Zidane used to wear, was tremendous. There's a very good chance he will spend the remainder of his club career in Madrid, which could be phenomenal.”
As both of their children's careers have skyrocketed, Denise and Mark have been forced to divide their lives, splitting their time between Sunderland and Madrid, with Denise based in Spain, Mark in England.
“My queen” – Denise Bellingham’s stabilising influence
While Mark’s footballing experience has proved invaluable for his sons’ success, Denise has also played a crucial role in the Bellingham empire.
“The role my mum is playing is massive. It is probably the biggest role of anyone, more than my coaches and managers, to be honest,” Jude said at his Madrid unveiling last year.
Denise, who Jude has referred to as his “queen”, has followed her son around Europe, making sure he is always surrounded by family, first to Germany when he was signed by Dortmund, and then to Madrid. She shares his flat in the Spanish capital's affluent La Finca where she reportedly cooks meals for him, makes his bed and sometimes even drives him to training.
She is the key to her son’s level-headedness, and is there to “keep everything neutral”, according to Jude.
“Without my mum, sometimes I'd get too low with the lows or too high with the highs and I stay pretty humble because I've got her around. It's also great to have her there because she's a great laugh as well. We get on so well and we're always doing stuff together.”
“Like most mothers, Denise is very caring,” Betsy says. “She understood the rollercoaster of emotions that come with being a child in an academy where the journeys are very up and down.”
Jude has often taken the opportunity to express his gratitude for the sacrifices his mother has made for him in post-match interviews. After the Champions League final earlier this month, he told TNT Sports that seeing his family in the stands had pushed him to the verge of tears.
“I was alright until I was up in my mum's and dad's face... and my little brother who I'm trying to be a role model for,” he said. “The amount of nights where they [his parents] could be at home at 7pm but instead they're doing trips at 11, 12 at night to take me to football.”
Luckily for the Bellinghams, all those late night sacrifices seem to have paid off.
