Sunnyboy or scapegoat?
England celebrates Jude Bellingham as a super-figure and sings the Beatles classic "Hey Jude" at every opportunity - but the expectations are also a burden for the 21-year-old.
"Hey Jude", the Beatles' worldwide hit, plays melancholically in the background and conveys the huge disappointment of the English. We see people crying in pubs, staring stunned at the screens. Their dreams are shattered like the crockery on the pub floor. Outside, fans trudge home in the night, one sitting cowering in the middle of the street. England have just lost on penalties to Germany, the 1996 European Championship semi-final on home soil. It's the worst nightmare, you hear the commentator say, and the pundit agrees, everyone feels the extreme pain. But, hey Jude, surely England will come back stronger. At this moment, the short video cuts, the image becomes grainy, and a boy dribbles across a football pitch with the ball at his feet - it's Jude Bellingham.
Then an off-screen voice shouts that the ball is falling at Jude Bellingham's feet - and of course he shoots it into the goal. Cheers break out, people are in each other's arms and beer sprays through the air. "Na na na na nananana, hey Jude," England sing to Bellingham in a packed stadium. At the end, it says in capital letters above the picture of his face: "You got this!", you can do it. The Adidas commercial staged Bellingham as an English super-figure before the European Championship and suggested that if only he could lead the national team to its first triumph since the 1966 World Cup home win.
Jude Bellingham scores a goal in the round of 16 that came close to the fictional one in the commercial
In fact, the midfielder scored a goal in the round of 16 against Slovakia that came pretty close to the fictitious one in the video: He saved England with a bicycle kick just before the final whistle in the extra time that was ultimately won, saving his country from a disgrace that would have shattered more china. There was a magic to the goal that makes it an iconic goal in England's footballing history. In fact, it would forever be associated with England's first European Championship title should the Birmingham man and his colleagues win their first final away from home against Spain on Sunday.
There is no better player to trace the course of England's tournament than Jude Bellingham. Ever since his spectacular scissor kick, he has been one of the defining faces of the European Championship - at the age of 21. He is England's footballer with the greatest reach, ahead of captain Harry Kane and attacking virtuoso Phil Foden. Experts consider him to be the heir apparent to the soon-to-be-retiring football kings Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, alongside Kylian Mbappé (France) and Erling Haaland (Norway).
England and Real Madrid - from which the global player David Beckham has already emerged
Bellingham's rise to football stardom gathered pace with his move from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid for €105 million in the summer of 2023. At Real, he seems destined to follow in the footsteps of legendary ten-man Zinedine Zidane. The fact that Bellingham has attracted international interest so quickly is not only due to his prominent role on the pitch, but also to his English origins. The rare meeting of the most famous football club, Real Madrid, and the most famous football nation, England, had already produced one of the few global players in David Beckham. None of the five Englishmen who played for Real before Bellingham was younger.
After his first season with the Whites, in which he won the Champions League at his first attempt, Jude Bellingham seemed almost physically exhausted and not mature enough to take on the responsibility of the national team straight away. He confessed to feeling "completely dead". It sounded like a cry for help to reduce the demands on him for the European Championship. He was criticized at home and his place as a regular was called into question despite his individual class.
"Who else?" Jude Bellingham shouted out his frustration after the goal
The situation got to him. He vented his frustration after the drop-back goal. He shouted "Who else?" into the cameras: "Who else should have scored that goal but me? He also made an obscene cheering gesture, for which he was fined 30,000 euros and given a suspended ban. Critics saw the action as an indication that Bellingham's self-confidence had grown as quickly as his fame.
But Gareth Southgate stood by him. Jude Bellingham was a young lad and reacted like one, said the national team coach, justifying the player's behavior. Southgate changed the system before the quarter-final against Switzerland, with Bellingham now operating as a playmaker behind Kane together with Foden. The idea was like an initial spark, partly because the pressure of progressing in the tournament was increasingly lifted from the young player. The nation took Jude Bellingham back into their hearts, believed in him - and sang "Hey Jude" at every opportunity.