FOR a kid so determined to escape his brother’s shadow that he refuses to wear his surname on his shirt, it seems a strange career move.
But Jobe Bellingham’s transfer to Borussia Dortmund — the club where brother Jude emerged as a world-class talent — is intriguing.
The midfielder is following in the footsteps of brother Jude[/caption]
Jude Bellingham played for Dortmund between 2020 and 2023[/caption]
The pair could become the third set of brothers to play for England[/caption]
Dortmund have clearly seen enough in the younger Bellingham to shell out the second-highest transfer fee in the club’s history. This is no ordinary Jobe.
A fee of up to £33million is a serious investment for a 19-year-old who has never played top-flight football.
And given that Dortmund are certainly no mugs when it comes to player recruitment, we can be assured that there is no sentimentality attached to it.
This thing has not been designed to be season two of a reality show called ‘The Bellinghams’.
The younger Bellingham — who has worn ‘Jobe’ on his back ever since joining Sunderland from Birmingham two years ago — is a serious prospect who played a major role in securing the Black Cats’ return to the Premier League following an eight-year absence.
And after sealing his move to the Westfalenstadion, he is heading straight to the Club World Cup in the United States, where he might end up playing against Jude and Real Madrid.
It is natural that Jobe should wish to forge his own path. After all, who wants to go through life being known as their big brother’s little brother?
But with the Bellinghams, there are far too many similarities to make that prospect a realistic one.
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Jude was the youngest debutant in Birmingham’s history, aged 16. Jobe became the second-youngest, just a couple of months older than his brother had been.
Jude was the Championship’s Young Player of the Year in 2020. Five years on, Jobe has won the same accolade.
And now both have moved to Borussia Dortmund as teenagers.
There are differences, too.
While Jude started off as a more defensive midfielder and has advanced to play as No 10 or a ‘false nine’, Jobe began as an attacking midfield player and has settled back into a box-to-box role.
It is therefore possible, perhaps even as soon as next year’s World Cup, to envisage the two Bellinghams playing together for England.
Since the start of the 20th Century, only two pairs of brothers have represented England at senior level.
Those are Bobby and Jack Charlton, who won the World Cup together in 1966; and Gary and Phil Neville, wonderfully referred to in Jaap Stam’s autobiography as “busy c***s . . . who never stop whingeing”.
So this would be quite some company for the Bellingham family to share.
Not that the duo’s father, Mark, needs any convincing that his family are something special.
Having one Bellingham in the England squad has its problems. Having two might be a real struggle.
There are already special measures in place for Jude, the finest English talent of his generation, when it comes to his lack of media interviews on England duty.
More significantly, there are times when he can be a law unto himself around the squad.
This is not ideal for Thomas Tuchel and might affect Jobe’s prospects of promotion from the Under-21s.
Still, should he hit the ground running at the Club World Cup and then flourish in the Bundesliga, Jobe will thrust himself into serious England contention.
Tuchel is not well blessed with central midfielders, to such an extent that 34-year-old Jordan Henderson — a close confidant of Jude — is back in a starting berth.
Dortmund has become a finishing school for young English talent, from Jadon Sancho to Jude Bellingham to Chelsea target Jamie Gittens and now to Jobe.
And while Sancho’s career prospects continue to nosedive after a poor loan spell at Chelsea, it is worth remembering the trailblazing nature of his move to Dortmund as a 17-year-old in 2017.
And that Sancho returned there for a decent loan move last season and started in the Champions League final at Wembley.
It was Sancho, and his representatives, who spotted a career path largely untrodden by English kids — the idea that, with Premier League clubs stockpiling global talent, their best chance of breaking into regular top-flight football was to move abroad.
What seemed revolutionary then is becoming increasingly common.
For Sancho, and then for Jude Bellingham, becoming a star player at one of European football’s greatest stadiums in the Bundesliga was far preferable to struggling for game time at a Premier League club.
So it should be little surprise that Jobe has followed suit.
His family name will be a help, rather than a hindrance, when it comes to winning over those fanatical supporters who make up Dortmund’s Yellow Wall.
Whether he decides to wear that name on his back is a different matter.
Burn’s fright
HOW will we know if England can defend before next year’s World Cup?
Thomas Tuchel’s men haven’t had to do much defending during his first three matches.
And they are not scheduled to face any elite opposition before the tournament in America — the clash with Senegal and a Wembley date with Wales are the only friendlies currently slated.
With Gareth Southgate’s defensive stalwarts either going or gone, most of what’s left doesn’t look world class.
Watching Dan Burn struggling against Andorra, then witnessing Portugal, Spain and France’s attacking quality in the Nations League, made Tuchel’s aim of ‘putting another star’ on England’s shirt — by winning the World Cup — sound distinctly silly.
Thomas Tuchel’s England have not been tested defensively[/caption]
It’s Mad world
THIS column’s new favourite referee has to be Bobby Madley, after the EFL official broke ranks and admitted he “hates” VAR for taking the emotion out of football.
Madley was axed as a top-flight ref for online silliness in 2018 and so maybe has less of a vested interest than other refs when he speaks about using tech in decision-making.
Many other refs agree with Madley, yet they are duty-bound to pretend VAR is a force for good — as it is also a “jobs for the boys” scheme, allowing more refs to earn more money from the game.
Big miss
BIG ANGE POSTECOGLOU may have been the last of the “Big” men to manage in the English game.
And at least the big Aussie, like Big Sam Allardyce and Big Jack Charlton before him, was actually big.
I’ve met Big Ron Atkinson and Alex “Big Eck” McLeish and they are not really very big at all.
And as for former Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe “Big Phil” Scolari, he was barely even medium-sized.
Being Frank
Given that the job spec for the Spurs hotseat must now say “do not prioritise cup competitions”, it’s no shock Thomas Frank is set to succeed Europa League winner Ange Postecoglou.
Since reaching the top flight in 2021, Frank’s Brentford have won just one FA Cup tie.
Thomas Frank boasts a poor FA Cup record[/caption]
Charity case
THERE will be another celebrity ‘Soccer Aid’ football match on TV next weekend — and you won’t find many better causes than Unicef.
But these games are so awful to watch that many of us would rather make big donations in order to guarantee they don’t show it on TV.
