Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary, Day 17
New York/New Jersey
Happy 23rd Birthday, Jude Bellingham. It’s a day for reflection and celebration. I’ve covered 300+ outfield players in the past 35 years on the England beat, and my top 10 would be (in chronological order): Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane and Bellingham.
The most consistently effective at elite level was Ashley Cole; no full-back has dealt better with Cristiano Ronaldo. Bellingham, though, has the capacity to eclipse Cole as the most formidable performer for England, the best of the best. He has the ability and the mentality.
Lists are always subjective, of course, as each compiler applies different criteria and experiences but a general point holds sway here. Bellingham is world class, and should be more appreciated by the England head coach Thomas Tuchel and by the player’s critics. At least the supporters adore him.
Talking to fans walking out of MetLife Stadium on Saturday evening, I was left in no doubt of their love for Bellingham. He’s the one England player who has his own lyrical salute, the long “Juuuude” and mass participation in “Hey Jude” post-match. With no Harry Maguire (“he loves the…”) or Phil Foden (“on fire”) to sing about, Bellingham has become even more of a popular player. The clean-cut, record-breaking Kane remains the most respected but Bellingham’s energy and edge, his rescue acts, inevitably make him England’s most acclaimed.
Unfortunately, Tuchel seems more focused on stick than carrot in dealing with Bellingham. He rarely praises him, believing the tough love will mould Bellingham into a team player when he’s already team-focused but with a huge hunger to win that occasionally spills over. Any parent or skilled man-manager will know that tough love works only for so long. Bellingham deserves more mature treatment by his manager.
Tuchel’s comment that Bellingham’s on-field temper could be “repulsive” was wrong and offensive and gave licence to his critics to wade in. Imagine being England’s most important player out here in the US and not having a manager who believes implicitly in you. It’s a pity as Bellingham’s talent and winning mentality give Tuchel’s side a chance of overcoming DR Congo in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Against Panama, Bellingham demonstrated what a team player he is. He proved he could play deeper as well as at 10, could get in the box and score as well as drift wide and put in the perfect cross for Kane. Bellingham could play anywhere for England, centre-back to centre-forward. He’s a 4, an 8 and a 10, making the No 22 he chose at Birmingham City.
Bellingham is probably the closest England have had to Duncan Edwards, and I make that comparison with the caveat of having watched only footage of the great Edwards. Bellingham has an authority and versatility, a dominant physical presence, a strong touch and smart positional sense that people associate with Edwards.
Bellingham’s tournament value was seen at the last Euros with a header to defeat Serbia and that overhead kick to prevent England being knocked out by Slovakia. He’s a man for the big occasion. Tuchel can surely see this. He needs more winners like today’s birthday boy.
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Kansas City
I’m back in Missouri, heading to England’s media bunker today. A couple of locals were fascinated to know what returning reporters thought of the MetLife Stadium. There is a lot of chatter about its unsuitability as the venue for the World Cup final: pitch, location, lack of glamour etc. The tournament climax had to be in New York, America’s greatest city. The SoFi is a superior stadium in grandeur and facilities but it is in LA, a time zone even less sympathetic to European TV audiences. So New York it is. It’s not easy to assess the atmosphere because the press box is glassed in. England fans said it was fine.
One way they could make the MetLife more appealing is ease the pain of the journey there. Trains from Penn Station have been reduced by $45 but are still $98-$105 round-trip when normally $13. Organisers want half the 82,000 crowd to attend via NJ Transit. They’re not going to at that excessive price. Subsidise and win some friends.
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Catching up with friends in Hoboken, New Jersey, they were going to a watch party for England in their neighbourhood. They sent a photo and it was packed with locals in England shirts. One phenomenon of this World Cup has been the amount of Americans wearing the “jersey” of another country either out of homage to ancestry or they like the team. Some Americans like England simply because they feel it represents the Premier League and are surprised when they don’t sweep all before them.
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Before leaving New York, I headed to Exchange Place, Jersey City for some Netflix filming. En route, I walked past the Katyn Memorial. Nearly 22,000 officers of the Polish Army, members of the intelligentsia and police officers were massacred by the Soviets in the Katyn Forest in 1940. If anything was needed to put sport’s trivia and tribulations into perspective it was this.
Click here to read World Soccer’s guide to the 2026 World Cup
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