In an echoing concrete cavern next to the England dressing room at the AufSchalke Arena, Declan Rice was talking to the cluster of journalists gathered in a semicircle in front of him. He was responding to a question, inevitably, about Jude Bellingham.
Rice, who had had a fine game in England’s uneven 1-0 win over Serbia in their Group C opener, offered a stream of complimentary observations about the player who had scored England’s winner.
Then he paused before summing up. ‘I’ve got to let him flourish,’ he said.
Rice is doing something right because, boy, is Bellingham flourishing. The Real Madrid midfielder had ridden a hype train into this European Championship and yet his performance against the Serbs was still so good that it had the power to startle.
England did not excel in Gelsenkirchen but Bellingham excelled. He ran the show. He was England’s best midfielder and England’s best attacker. His defensive work wasn’t too shabby, either. And his winning goal, a thundering first-half header, was brave and determined.
Jude Bellingham has slowly taken on the weight of the nation after his stellar performances
The Real Madrid superstar was the matchwinner in England’s Euro 2024 opener against Serbia
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There were times, in the first half in particular, when it felt as if he were dismantling Serbia on his own and, in those moments, it was hard not to let the mind drift back 20 years to the night in the Estadio da Luz when England played France in their first game of Euro 2004.
Wayne Rooney was 18 years old when he made his first appearance in a major tournament that evening but he played with utter fearlessness and undiluted confidence as he terrorised the reigning European champions and ran them ragged.
Rooney played like a force of nature that night, like a young man who could be anything he wanted. It felt as if his career were being launched towards the stars in the night sky and that he could take England with him on the journey.
It felt as if we had a frightening talent in our midst, the kind of talent that even a team as accomplished as France simply could not cope with and that England had found the boy-genius that could light the way to a first tournament triumph since 1966.
There were unmistakable echoes of that night in the way that Bellingham performed in Gelsenkirchen.
He is more experienced now than Rooney was in 2004. Rooney was still playing for Everton. Bellingham has already won La Liga and the Champions League.
But Bellingham played with the same kind of insouciance against Serbia, the same air of indestructability and the same assumption of superiority that flowed through Rooney that intoxicating night in Lisbon.
Bellingham is similar to Wayne Rooney but is more experienced than the England legend was
Bellingham has already won LaLiga and the Champions League during his short career
England lost against France then and they did not play particularly well against Serbia on Sunday but both games were subservient to the individual performances that lit them up. Rooney, of course, was injured later in the tournament and England went out. If Bellingham stays fit here, anything is possible.
He made it seem that way on Sunday anyway. He plays like a man who feels as if he is unbeatable. He does things that hit different. There was a moment in the first half where he was brought down by Dusan Vlahovic as Bellingham surged out of defence.
There was a hiatus. Everyone expected the referee to blow his whistle for a foul. But before he could, Bellingham had dragged himself back to his feet and continued his run, slaloming past a couple of Serbian midfielders before laying the ball off.
Rooney inspired a kind of awe in other players when he was a kid with rough edges and Bellingham does that, too.
The Serbs knew they were up against something special and that trying to contain him was like trying to catch a storm.
Again, similarly to Rooney, Bellingham has the ability to inspire others with his rough edges
Sure, his influence waned a little in the second half. Given the season he had for Madrid, given the energy he had expended before the interval, it would have been odd if it hadn’t.
But he still seemed to be everywhere. There was an episode, deep into the second half, when he was faced by substitute Ivan Ilic on the Serbia goal-line at the edge of the area. Bellingham twisted him one way and then the other. He toyed with him and when he had sold him a second time, he clipped a cross into the box that was begging to be finished off before the goalkeeper claimed it.
It is clear already that he is the brightest talent England have possessed for a generation.
He is part of a lineage that has been passed down through Bryan Robson to Paul Gascoigne to Rooney and now to Bellingham. He is the one our hopes rest upon in Germany.
The problem, at the moment, is that England seem too dependent upon him. Bellingham’s was not the only good performance but if England are going to have a chance of winning these Euros, they will need better displays from others than they got on Sunday.
Bellingham is part of a lineage that has been passed down through Bryan Robson (right) to Paul Gascoigne (left) to Rooney and now to the Real Madrid star
Phil Foden was fitful and uninspired. He often is when he plays for England. That needs to change fast. And if it doesn’t, then Cole Palmer needs to be given his chance in his stead. Trent Alexander-Arnold played well but the jury is still out on the experiment of deploying him in midfield.
Harry Kane also had a quiet game and there are nagging worries about the back injury he is recovering from. But though he had a quiet game, he still came within an inch of scoring when his late header crashed against the crossbar. Kane has enough of a track record at this level to inspire belief he will play a significant part in this tournament.
So debates will rage on in the build-up to England’s second group game with Denmark in Frankfurt on Thursday but none of those debates will be about Bellingham. He is the jewel in the crown, a once-in-a-generation player. He stepped up on Sunday. Now it is time for others to step up with him.
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