Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly
Jude Bellingham is now second for non-penalty major tournament goals in the history of the England national team. No England player has ever scored more goals than him at a single World Cup or European Championship. Bellingham is also the second-youngest appearance maker for England at this World Cup. Read that last one again. This does not make sense.
Every major tournament goal is momentous, but even so: Bellingham scored England’s first goal in Qatar and their first in Germany. He has scored 90th-minute equalisers, opening goals and game changers. He has scored twice in two minutes. He has carried an entire team on his back during this tournament. Harry Kane has the same number of goals, but for impact there is no fair fight.
Herein lies the great irony. They accused Bellingham of being arrogant. They said that his demand to be the protagonist, his main character energy, was in danger of dragging England down. Now that is exactly what they must celebrate him for being and doing. Bellingham has been named Man of the Match in four of England’s six games. He is the literal main character.
He gets frustrated because he wants to win? Fine by me – I want that too. He throws up his arms in frustration when things aren’t going his way? I’d rather my footballers looked like they care than the opposite. He demands perfection from teammates? Great, if he demands it from himself too (and he does). We have a World Cup to win. This isn’t a school sports day.
On the Road USA
Join Daniel Storey on his 7,500-mile odyssey across the US to tell the stories of a World Cup like no other.
Mistakes may have been made. It would be weirder if not. If you put up a list of the personal lapses of judgement in my late teens and early 20s on a big screen in even a small town centre, I’d move permanently to live in a large hole in the middle of nowhere. Growing up is a non-linear pursuit and doing so as a superstar is a thousand times harder than in some quiet corner of any country you can think of.
The accusation of arrogance is harder to parse without getting angry. For arrogance is an inflation of one’s own importance and I don’t think it possible to overstate Jude’s. Self-assurance – now that’s different: an understanding of your ability and a psychological process to maintain belief in challenging or high-pressure situations. There is no footballer on the planet more capable of doing that at the same age than Bellingham. You can’t overstate the importance so arrogance becomes impossible.
Not only do we tend to conflate arrogance and self-assurance, we (and I mean the English here) fall into the trap of seeing demonstrative shows of confidence differently in outsiders. Eric Cantona can walk in with a collar turned up as if he owned the place, to quote Roy Keane, and become iconic. As a sporting culture we are wedded to the eternal fear of pride before a fall and as a result are rotten at allowing confidence to run free. No shows of self-belief please, we’re English.
For Bellingham, an extra challenge: few people truly know him. He is unique, a magnificent, generational English talent who has never made a single Premier League appearance. He doesn’t like speaking to the media (which is entirely his fair choice) and doesn’t like the intrusion. That lack of knowledge has bred rumour, conjecture and information that is hard to prove or disprove.
But what was never in doubt is that this talent always had to be front and centre because his talent and attitude deserves it. There is the second irony: the questions were over personality but find me a player in this World Cup who has worked harder for their country. Even without the goals, the dribbles, the ball protection, the passes and the tackles, Bellingham runs for two. Do as I say and as I do; I’m fine with that.
There is a link to England’s manager here too. In his interview after full-time in Miami, Thomas Tuchel was angry with the performance. England had just made a World Cup semi-final; surely happiness is the only appropriate emotion? How arrogant of Tuchel, thinking England should be even better. Or perhaps: this is how the elite think. Good is never good enough. Pats on the back only come at the end of the road, never halfway.
Bellingham did not engage with the criticism. He knew what he could do and he knew how self-assurance would assist it. A kid from Stourbridge walked into the Bernabeu and believed he could own it. He landed at this tournament and believed that being 23 was no barrier to leading your national team to its greatest day.
So forget arrogance and its negative connotations for good and just watch, appreciate, admire. Even if Jude Bellingham did believe that he was the centre of England’s world, it’s a joy to live in it. You wouldn’t want him to be anywhere but here.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/PyGLt8U
Post a Comment