Emile Heskey believes that Jude Bellingham is destined to help England men end their long wait for a major trophy.
Bellingham was England’s leading light at this summer’s World Cup, earning a place in the team of the tournament and coming third in the voting for the Golden Ball.
Having only turned 23 midway through the tournament, Bellingham still has several more opportunities to inspire his country to glory, and Heskey only wishes that he could have shared the pitch with him,
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“Someone who wanted to lead by example, someone who wanted to stand up and be counted”
Heskey told FourFourTwo: “For someone who got a lot of stick going into the tournament, people saying Bellingham shouldn’t be picked and blah, blah, blah… he was the one who took every single game by the scruff of the neck.
“He was number 10, and what do we say about number 10s? ‘Oh, they play number 10 because they’re lazy.’
“But he was the one running back, tackling, then driving with the ball. He was the one doing everything. Someone who wanted to lead by example, someone who wanted to stand up and be counted.
“Not all players are like that, not all are built like that. A lot just want to be part of the team and blend in.
He doesn’t want to blend in, he wants to stand out – and he stood out with how many goals at the World Cup, seven? Unreal.
“People were pointing a finger at him saying he was this and he was that. If he wasn’t that, we’d be pointing a finger and saying ‘He’s dull, he needs to be a leader’. Then he’s a leader, and we point at something else. We’ll win stuff with him. He’s a winner.
“As a team-mate, it’s very inspiring to play with someone like him. Do you know why? Because inevitably, everyone will be looking at everyone else. I’ll be looking at you and saying ‘Are you going to do it?’, and you’ll be looking at someone else and saying ‘I hope he does it’.
“It needs someone to just go: ‘I’m going to do it – I don’t need to say anything, I’ll just go and do it’. Then everyone will follow you. It takes some balls to do that at 23.”
“He doesn’t need the armband – he’ll go and do it anyway. If you need him to wear it, he will, but he doesn’t need to wear it to show you he’s a leader.”
“That’s why you put a team together. You don’t put a team together with the same personalities. You put a team together with some who are going to be grafters, and sometimes with someone who’s going to cause problems with what they say and how they say it, but it’s to get the best out of everyone.”