Going into this summer’s World Cup conversations were rife in England concerning what potentially lay in store for Jude Bellingham.

Many wanted the 23-year-old to be afforded some degree of freedom on the biggest footballing stage of them all, so that he could show all of the qualities that have garnered him multiple Ballon d’Or nominations.

Others insisted that Morgan Rogers was the better option to be deployed as England’s number ten, playing just off Harry Kane.

For the record, the then Aston Villa playmaker – now at Chelsea, following his £117m transfer – started eight of the 14 previous games under Thomas Tuchel from his appointment as England head coach.

In six of those games he was stationed ahead of a midfield pivot, in the role Bellingham prefers to thrive in.

At club level, the Real Madrid star was venerated as an elite talent. For England, however, questions surrounded his starting berth as the Three Lions prepared for a tough opening World Cup commitment with Croatia.

It was a disparity that was unusual and noteworthy. Subsequently, it generated a multitude of articles as the tournament loomed.

Changing the narrative

Fast-forward to the here and now and such talk seems antiquated, which is no reflection on Rogers who remains an integral part of England’s set-up.

For Bellingham’s role in this narrative, he was duly selected for England’s opener and shone, winning the Man of the Match award.

It was a merit he also claimed versus Panama, Mexico and Norway as the 23-year-old took each game by the scruff of the neck and orchestrated his team’s progress.

Lionel Messi is the only other player to have picked up four Man of the Match awards in a single World Cup campaign.

This in itself speaks of an attacking midfielder who influenced proceedings in the Americas and, in Bellingham’s case, created a new truth that obliterated all doubts.

He was no longer solely a superstar for Real Madrid. He now holds that status too for his country.  

Goal Involvements - 8

Prior to the World Cup, Jude Bellingham had scored or assisted on 16 occasions, equating to a goal involvement every 212 minutes.

This is a perfectly respectable return, especially for a player deployed in three different midfield roles since making his international bow in 2020.

This summer, however, his goal-threat increased substantially, scoring seven times and assisting once for Kane. This equates to a goal involvement every 77 minutes.

Exclusively positioned advanced of a midfield hub and given full licence to create in part explains this acceleration though naturally Bellingham’s brilliant displays deserve to be fully acknowledged too.

Shots total – 19 (13 on target)

The midfielder’s shot ratio is entirely consistent with his number of attempts for Los Blancos in 2025/26 and, pertinently, for England in recent years.

Two details, however, elevate his output substantially.

Firstly – and most obviously – the heightened stage on which he registered such figures has to be factored in.

It is one thing to rack up a high shot-count against minnows in a qualifying walkover, quite another to maintain that at the Azteca Stadium in front of 80,000 fervent supporters.

There is his 36.8 percent conversion rate to recognise, also. It was the highest ratio of any player who reached double figures for shots undertaken.

Bellingham was not simply firing at will. He was making his attempts count.

Key Passes - 8

Tasked with supporting Harry Kane in the final third and ensuring the Bayern Munich forward was never isolated, it is fitting that Bellingham’s singular assist was for his team’s captain, a pinpoint cross at Panama’s expense that Kane nodded home.

Elsewhere, there were seven other key passes – the second highest number, after Declan Rice, in the England set-up.

There has previously been some criticism of Bellingham for supposedly attempting to do too much individually, taking matters into his own hands when situations go awry.

His numerous lay-offs and astute distribution for team-mates at the World Cup disproved this notion.