The vast majority of the 81,000 were bellowing “Bellingham”. As the pitch announcer ran through the first names of the Borussia Dortmund side, he left it to the crowd to supply the surname. They did so with gusto, particularly when it came to their No. 22. If Chelsea’s visit is to be Jude Bellingham’s last Champions League game at the Signal Iduna Park, he bowed out having made the transition from Championship midfielder to World Cup star. Then again, it may just be his last for a few weeks. The quarter-finals might beckon.
But times have changed since a teenager inspired Dortmund to Champions League glory; it was the last millennium when Lars Ricken did and the realities of the footballing world have altered sufficiently since then. Now one of Europe’s best-supported clubs tend to provide players to clubs with aspirations of conquering the continent instead of enabling them to realise their ultimate ambitions. That may be Bellingham’s fate: perhaps Real Madrid, maybe Liverpool, possibly even a switch to Chelsea which would mean Enzo Fernandez’s reign as their record signing was brief.
