Of all England’s great Black footballers, none has been the defining figure of the national side – until now | Calum Jacobs

Bellingham has transcended the hostility he has faced from press and pundits to become the emotional and symbolic focal point of the team

Months before the World Cup, the familiar chorus of antipathy that had followed Jude Bellingham almost since his emergence on the international stage grew louder. A number of writers, pundits and former professionals questioned whether one of England’s most gifted footballers might prove detrimental to the squad’s harmony. The clearest expression of these arguments appeared in a Daily Mail article in November 2025 beneath one of the most ignominious headlines in English footballing history: “Leave Jude at home.”

Amid a wave of criticism directed at Bellingham, Ian Wright felt compelled to defend him on an episode of Stick to Football. Once clipped, his remarks spread rapidly across football’s social media ecosystem and beyond, both because of Wright’s candour, and for placing the hostility directed at Bellingham within a historical tradition of policing Black men’s behaviour. “Someone like Jude, for some reason, frightens these people,” Wright said, before adding: “It’s something you’re taught as a Black man … to keep your head down and be, for want of a better word, a humble fucking slave.”

Calum Jacobs is the author of A New Formation: How Black Footballers Shaped the Modern Game and the founder of CARICOM magazine

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