AL KHOR, Qatar — Football these days isn’t supposed to be about individuals anymore. Even in the international game, the pre-tournament clamors for the Premier League’s in-form player de jour are less vociferous than they once were. This is a game of structures and cohesion, the game fully systematized. And yet it does help if a team can turn up an exceptional player, particularly if he hits a tournament in the form of his life.
Jude Bellingham is just 19, but the impact he has had on this England team is already remarkable. When Bellingham left Birmingham City at 17, the club retired his No. 22 shirt in recognition of how brilliant he had been in his 44 games for the club. This was no empty gesture by some lower-league minnow: it was from Birmingham that Trevor Francis joined Nottingham Forest when he became Britain’s first £1 million footballer, and it made no similar consideration for him. It knew how special Bellingham was then—and what he was going to become.
The rest of the world is beginning to find out. As England set up a World Cup quarterfinal against France by beating Senegal 3–0, Bellingham played a starring role. He is an astonishingly complete midfielder, skillful, intelligent and physically imposing. But unlike the likes of, say, Steven Gerrard or even Paul Pogba, who were almost too complete, falling between positions in a modern midfield, he seems entirely at ease whether playing deep or, as against Senegal, in a more advanced role.
