Jude Bellingham: Germany match the ‘next step’ for young England midfielder, says ex coach
“He will be desperate to play. He won’t be fazed in the slightest.”
The man who nurtured Jude Bellingham’s football career from the age of seven, says a game against Germany in the knockout stages of a major international tournament is “just the next step on his journey”, and the teenager won’t be happy unless he’s in England’s starting XI for the match.
Mike Dodds, Birmingham City’s head of academy, has told Sky Sports News he thinks Bellingham will be a fixture in the England midfield for the next decade, and he has the perfect mindset for a game as big as the one at Wembley on Tuesday.
“This would just be the next step in his journey,” Dodds explains, “which seems to be endless.
“On the basis of what he has achieved in just two seasons, what is he going to look like in 10 years’ time? It’s actually quite scary.”
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England’s last-16 match comes on Bellingham’s 18th birthday.
Dodds says it’s a day when he can come of age in an England shirt, given the chance.
“He will be disappointed if he’s not playing. He won’t be sitting on that bench thinking ‘what a fantastic occasion this is’. He will be thinking ‘why am I not playing?’ he explains.
“I dealt with that throughout his development period. He called himself ‘impatient’, and that’s what he is. He wants the next thing, and the next thing after that.”
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Dodds says Bellingham has already proved he meets challenges head-on, and he never takes the easy option. That’s why he chose a £25m move to Borussia Dortmund last summer, instead of a club in England.
“He’s gone over to Germany at 17, in the middle of a pandemic, away from his family, and to perform at the level he’s performed at speaks volumes,” explains Dodds.
“The perfect way to describe his progress to this point is ‘methodical’. He has planned the next step throughout his career.
“At 16 he could have left the football club (Birmingham) but he didn’t, because he knew he had a chance to play in the first team, in the Championship which is a brutal league.
“He could have gone to the Premier League last summer, or many other clubs across Europe, but he chose Borussia Dortmund and the proof has been in the pudding – he’s played over 40 games in the Bundesliga.
“He’s got into Gareth’s England team at the age of 17, and when I have conversations with him, his mindset is: ‘I want to play. I want to be in the team’. It’s not: ‘I want to enjoy this experience. I’m in a really good place, I can’t believe I’m here’. His mindset is ‘how do I get in the team?'”
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Dodds is adamant that if he’s given the opportunity against Germany, he will impress.
“From a football point of view, there is zero concern,” he says.
“Some may worry because of his age, and the magnitude of the game. But history is the best predictor of the future, and he’s already played in the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City, in the German Cup final against a top-quality RB Leipzig team, so he’s ready to play in this game if called upon.”
Dodds says Bellingham’s versatility means he can play anywhere in England’s midfield three – and he’s capable of filling the “number eight” void left by Mason Mount if, as expected, the Chelsea man misses out because he can’t leave quarantine until the morning of the Germany match.
“As a midfield player, he can do everything,” Dodds says. “He can do deeper work, he can do box to box energy, and he can make the killer pass in the top area of the pitch.
“He has an unbelievable mindset, one of the best I have ever seen. We would put him in to train with the first team at the age of 15 and he did not care. He was in the dressing room with some senior players and it didn’t faze him in the slightest.
“Every obstacle that is put in his way he takes it in his stride.”
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