The 20-year-old is earning a reputation for showing up in the biggest of moments and providing late magic to inspire both club and country
Jude Bellingham has constantly received plaudits for his performances in a Real Madrid shirt this season, and rightfully so. The 20-year-old’s first season at Santiago Bernabeu has seen him lead Los Blancos to the cusp of a La Liga title, the Champions League semi-finals and put himself fully in the frame to win the Ballon d’Or.
Bellingham has constantly delivered in big moments, providing game-winning goals and assists to keep Madrid on track towards what would be a memorable double. The England midfielder certainly seems to possess the much-discussed ‘clutch gene’, with his penchant for late interventions running all the way back his days as a teenager at Birmingham City.
As such, GOAL has taken a look at Bellingham’s most clutch moments in his young career so far…
Birmingham bedlam
It didn’t take long for Bellingham to make an impact for his boyhood club. The Birmingham academy talent had impressed on his league debut against Swansea City in August 2019, and when Jefferson Montero went down with an injury in the first half of the following week’s game against Stoke City, Bellingham was called upon from the bench.
Making his first appearance at St. Andrews, Bellingham quickly went about showing the Blues’ faithful just why he was earning first-team minutes at the age of 16. Birmingham trailed after an hour, but equalised through Lukas Jutkiewicz in the 73rd minute. Then, three minutes later, Bellingham struck , as his deflected strike wrong-footed a helpless Adam Federici, who could only watch as the ball trickled into the net.
That match-winning moment kick-started a campaign that saw Bellingham become the hottest property within the Championship, and nine months later, he was en route to Germany to join Borussia Dortmund, while his No.22 shirt was being retired by his boyhood club.
Dortmund delight
While not always deployed in outright attacking positions for Dortmund, Bellingham still managed to pop up with timely goals for the Bundesliga giants. One of his most memorabe came in January 2022, when Bellingham helped turn around a fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Marco Rose’s side still had feint title hopes at the time, and needed a win against a struggling Eintracht side to keep themselves back into the picture. But with Dortmund trailing 2-1 in the 87th minute, hopes of a victory seemed slim at best.
That was until Bellingham rose to meet Thomas Meunier’s teasing cross, and nodded home past a frozen goalkeeper. Mahmoud Dahoud then netted the winner two minutes later, but that wouldn’t have been possible without the England midfielder’s intervention.