Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham added to his lore in the Euro 2024 Round of 16, rescuing England from defeat in the dying moments of regulation with a spectacular bicycle kick to send the game to extra time, which the Three Lions would win.
Bellingham’s big goal, his second of the tournament, came after a pair of anonymous performances that had the Ballon d’Or candidate looking like one of the big flops of the Euros.
Those kinds of goals are what define a superstar, especially when they come at a time when a player has been criticized for being below their usual standard of form.
Bellingham contended for the Pichichi in his first season with Real Madrid, winning LaLiga and the Champions League. Before that, he nearly carried Dortmund to the Bundesliga title as a No. 8.
But don’t tell Dietmar Hamann that Bellingham has already proven himself, because despite three seasons of elite level performances, Jude, apparently, still needs a few more years to prove himself.
Here’s what the former Liverpool, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City defensive midfielder Dietmar Hamann said about England’s best player:
“Without his teammates, Jude Bellingham is nothing. Apart from his goals, he does nothing, he was not seen in the first four games. I want to wait and see where he will be in 2-3 years.”
Hamann is so notorious for his bad opinions that even former Liverpool and Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp eviscerated him at a press conference.
So Hamann saying something silly is just par for the course, yet he outdid himself with this vintage remark on Bellingham, seeing as how Bellingham was basically the Dortmund team in 2022/23 when they took Bayern Munich to the brink in the title race.
And to say that Bellingham only scores goals is utterly ridiculous. Bellingham averaged 4.4 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game in LaLiga last season after clipping 5.2 in the previous season with Dortmund.
Bellingham is a good creator, too, as he averaged 1.7 key passes per game for Real Madrid last season, settling nicely in Carlo Ancelotti’s famous No. 10 role.
Defensively, Bellingham averaged 1.5 tackles per game for Real Madrid in the 2023/24 league campaign, and he was elite in a more defensive role as a box-to-box midfielder for BVB with 3.6 combined tackles and interceptions per game in 2022/23.
Hamann is one of many former Bayern Munich and Liverpool players who spends more time tearing down the current generation of players rather than actually paying attention to the leagues they pretend to cover.
Usually, Hamann goes after players from his own country (Germany) or former clubs (Liverpool and Bayern). This time, he decided to make some waves by going after the biggest target, Bellingham, who is achieving Cristiano Ronaldo status by being so massive that he is on everyone’s lips.
Constructive criticism is fine and opinion on performances is one thing, but outright indefensible statements on a statistical basis are not.
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