Jude Bellingham‘s fan club appears to be growing faster than Donald Trump‘s.
Proof of which could be found in the Olympic Stadium in Athens this week, when a pitch invader made a beeline for one man during England‘s warm-up before kick off. Bellingham was the one he wanted a selfie with.
And like the newly-re-elected US president Trump, Bellingham now appears destined to be handed a position of enormous responsibility. Harry Kane will be approaching the age of 33 when the next World Cup comes around in 2026.
His participation in the tournament is far from guaranteed, irrespective of how well he continues to look after himself. While the chances of him still being England captain are also in doubt.
Kane found himself surplus to requirements in Athens on Thursday night, after being surprisingly dropped by interim boss Lee Carsley. Sitting on the England bench is not something Kane is familiar with.
(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
But it felt like the first genuine sign that the Bayern Munich striker is entering the tentative stages of the twilight of his career. In his absence, fellow veteran Kyle Walker wore the armband as England romped to a convincing 3-0 win over Greece in the Nations League.
But make no mistake, there was only one person leading the Three Lions – and it wasn’t Walker. Bellingham ran the show from start to finish.
Just like he has from the moment he first burst onto the international scene as a precocious teenager in 2020. Irrespective of Kane’s continued presence, too.
Bellingham rose to the challenge required with one of his best England performances, seizing the chance to take on extra responsibility while Kane sat on the sidelines. It was a display which proved the Real Madrid sensation is a natural successor to Kane as England skipper.
And Carsley admitted afterwards that Bellingham’s influence on the squad is now so great that some of those in the same group of stars aspire to be like him. Carsley said: “He always plays with responsibility.
“I know we only see it during games, but he does it in training and he leads by example. “He’s a really good person to have around, because people want to aspire to him and compete with him.
“You’ve seen in Greece that there is a level of player coming into the squad who are definitely raising the bar.” Just how high Bellingham can go on to raise the bar Carsley speaks of, remains to be seen.
But it’s a shared and widespread belief among the leading managers in the game, that a captain of any team has to be a proven winner. And despite his remarkable goalscoring achievements, Kane has won the square root of nothing when it comes to trophies.
Bellingham, on the other hand, has won the Champions League and La Liga titles at the tender age of 20. The chances are he will have added to this collection as well, before the 2026 World Cup kicks off.
When incoming England boss Thomas Tuchel finally settles into his new job on January 1, he will be looking to the immediate future. And it won’t take him long to realise that he needs Bellingham more than he does Kane, if he wants to stand a realistic chance of achieving what he’s been appointed for in the first place.