sport news MARTIN SAMUEL: The next Gazza? Jude Bellingham is so much more than that trends now
Paris Saint- Germain want him now. So that’s Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and no doubt Barcelona once they work out how to rewrite the books again to afford it.
In this way, Jude Bellingham’s arrival on the world stage in Qatar is mightily similar to that of Paul Gascoigne in 1990.
In other ways, too. Bellingham’s youth, his confidence, his energy, his influence, is all an echo of a player whose creative peak came 13 years prior to his birth, but who remains a household name, even to this day.
Jude Bellingham is taking the world by storm with his performances at the World Cup
Gascoigne was the player of the tournament back then, just as Bellingham may yet be now, particularly if Kylian Mbappe and France are dispatched on Saturday.
There, though, the similarity ends. One was a boy, another a man, and the fact Gascoigne was 23 when he propelled England to within a penalty shootout of the World Cup final is no indication of where the separation lies.
Bellingham is 19 but plays as if he could be the veteran in a three-man England midfield beside two players with 111 caps between them. Jordan Henderson is at his sixth major tournament, Declan Rice has started a Euros final, yet Bellingham requires neither to hold his hand.
Against Senegal, there was a vignette after Harry Kane had been brought down again and was looking frustrated. It was Bellingham who went over, helped pick him up, patted him on the back and sent him on his way with words of encouragement.
Compare this with Gascoigne in Italy and his most famous image. He’s in tears having picked up a second yellow card in the semi-final. He now knows if England get through, he won’t be playing.
His arrival onto the world stage is similar to that of household name Paul Gascoigne at Italia 90
He can’t handle it. He’s gone. Gary Lineker is making signals to his manager, Bobby Robson, on the bench to keep an eye on him. To the outside world it looks a human, heart-warming gesture. Lineker is more honest about his motivation. He was trying to win a match, trying to win a World Cup final. The alert was as much to do with his own ambitions for the team as for Gascoigne’s well-being. It was as much to tell Robson that he may need to be taken off.
Bellingham has never been tested in the same way, but, one imagines, his reaction may be a little different. He has already captained Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. It’s a different energy. When Germany’s best player, Michael Ballack, picked up his second yellow card of the tournament in the semi-final against South Korea in 2002, he reacted by scoring the winning goal, to make sure his country made the final, even without him.
Football aside, Bellingham is everything Gascoigne was not. Who ends up captain of a Champions League club in a foreign country, and in a major league no less, at the age of 19, having arrived two years before?
But the 19-year-old Bellingham is playing with a maturity that is way beyond his tender years
Older than Bellingham is now, Gascoigne was still in England’s Under 21 squad and B team. At the Toulon tournament, after he came to prominence, it was clear this was a maverick personality on field and off. The team were staying at a hotel in Sanary-sur-Mer and one afternoon, Gascoigne spied a
