Just like Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a poster of Ronaldo Nazario in his room, just like Kylian Mbappé had a poster of Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry and Toby might have a poster of Jude Bellingham in their room.
Harry, 10 and Toby, 12, are two youth team players for Stourbridge FC, the hometown club of Jude Bellingham. This is the same club where it all started for a toddler Bellingham.
During England‘s Euro 24 game against Denmark, Stourbridge FC arranged a watch party at the club where the two aforementioned kids watched with almost 170 other locals. Not all of them are related to Bellingham, but they have the same origin from Stourbridge.
Born in Stourbridge, West Midlands, Jude Bellingham showed his promise at an early age, at least according to his grade 2 teacher, Suzanne Shackleton. ‘Really genuine. Really personable. Extremely courteous and polite,’ she said. ‘He was really dedicated to everything he did, not just his sport and football. Across all areas of the curriculum he was well-motivated and tried hard with everything he did.’
Football intertwined with Bellingham’s life so intimately that there was no break without the leather ball. ‘You’d see him every playtime, lunchtime, playing football out on the playground with his friends,’ Shackleton told Birmingham World.
Born to a non-league football legend, Mark and Human Resources professional Dennis, Bellingham didn’t have the chance to tailor his own rags-to-riches story.
‘He will have been one of the better ones but that’s no surprise because his dad was a really good footballer as well. We are all so proud of him and everything he has achieved,’ his nursery manager Luisa Mead-Blandford told The Sun.
After his elementary grooming in the Twinkle Toes nursery, Bellingham moved to the next step, his primary education. Brought up in Hagley, a village near Stourbridge, the former Borussia Dortmund star joined the Hagley Primary School.
Caretaker Mark Williams was a close observer of a young Bellingham whose daily chores involved bringing down the ball sent atop the roof by the aspiring footballer. ‘It seemed to be a daily occurrence. You could tell then he was quite a good little footballer and he was destined to be.’
‘He did seem to do that more than any other child. It became a joke. Every day the ladders were out. I kept them on standby because of that reason. He was a very pleasant lad. He always asked you to get the ball down nicely,’ Williams told The Independent.
Following his schooling in Hagley, Bellingham attended Priory school in Edgbaston. With a more than modest fee of £16,000 a year, Bellingham got the opportunity to shape his raw talent. Surrounded by state-of-the-art sporting facilities and tailor-made PE teachers to train the young mind and body, Bellingham was shaped into the sensational player he is. Alongside his training with the Birmingham academy which he joined at the age of 8, his schooling in Priory provided an excellent platform for sporting and educational balance.
Bellingham often arrived for training at Birmingham City FC in his burgundy school attire. ‘We’re doing finishing drills and this kid’s joining in with the first-team,’ Birmingham striker Lukas Jutkiewicz said. “He’s faking to shoot, putting senior pros on their a***s, chopping and then rolling it into the other corner. I thought to myself – and I know I wasn’t the only one – ‘Just who is this?’”
Jude graduated from Loughborough College in 2021 with a BTEC Level 3 Certificate in Sport and by then everyone knew who he was, a starter for Borussia Dortmund. Bellingham’s tutor, Jason Ramsay, was unable to hide his astonishment at the commitment of the 18-year-old.
‘Jude was an exemplary student while studying a BTEC in Sport at Loughborough College. His ability to manage first team and international duties, while finding time to complete college work was a testament to his maturity and desire to achieve the very best in every aspect of his life,’ Ramsay said in an interview.
Now with the world at his feet, Jude Bellingham is an inspiration to many around the world, including the two brothers, Harry and Toby.
