Jude Bellingham | 'La Final' | Episode 4

Real success now is winning trophies. The expectation for the Euros was very high. That's when the pile-on started to get a little bit intense. I'm a combination of all the people I've ever met in my life, and more so the ones that have influenced me the most. He's starting to look like the Godfather. You know, in his old age, when he's just drinking the wine. The people who I have around me when I do those end-of-season dues, if you like, they're always people who've had a massive impact on my life, whether it was at Birmingham, friends that I've known since I was a kid, members of family that obviously I don't get to see all the time. Nothing makes me as comfortable as being around the people who I love the most and who molded me into the person I am today. During the season, it's not like you get the chance to speak on the phone too often. So, you know, when I've got them all in one place, I feel like I can end up spending time with all of them. I feel like every few weeks I have another week that's the biggest week of my career. It's nice because it means that I'm progressing, I'm getting better. I'm proud to be involved in such big games. 90 minutes of football at Wembley, winner takes all. I'm really looking forward to it, fully healthy and ready to go. They're really strong out wide and they've got a lot of speed in transition as well. So I think they're going to try and catch us on the break. They'll sit quite deep and try and frustrate us. First goal is really important. They've defended Leeds really well so far in the Champions League and that's got them through the competition. So the first goal is huge. You don't want a seven-day build-up to a game where you're only thinking about the game. I think that's ridiculous. You take the time to enjoy the company and almost take your mind off it and then when the time's right, you flick into that mode where you have to perform. I always think the build-up just like, it almost starts so early. Madrid fans, they've really got no reason to be like, like afraid or nervous. And then for Dortmund, it's like, it's a free hit almost, isn't it? Because no one expects him to win. But the atmosphere I think would be amazing. The first time I watched him score, I was in the away end. I was unbelievable, man. I was literally right behind his goal and he scored and like the celebration in the crowd were unbelievable. Like Blues fans just everywhere. I remember seeing Jay Bellingham on the BBC Sport app and I was like, what? Like insane. People wouldn't even understand like how crazy it is, how fast it's gone. If you were to say someone like this kid in four years is going to be in the Champions League final playing for Madrid, wouldn't La Liga play the year in the same season? Genuinely, everyone would have gone, what, shut up. He could get Champions League today and then he's only 20. Do you know what I mean? How many more is he going to win? I feel like I'm giving him way too much credit here. Before every game, we say good luck to each other and stuff. I won't get like emotional to him. Like, you know, some people would want to message him and be like, come on. I think he's that good that he'll just, he's got it. You know what I mean? There's nothing like a build up to the Champions League final. Absolutely nothing like it. It was a late kickoff. So before football, you don't really know what to do yourself. Nacho doesn't like any football to be on. But obviously because we're in England, it was the Sky Channels and the game that they were playing was Arsenal versus Birmingham in the Carling Cup final of 2011. And just from that, I thought, we're going to win today. Just from that, I thought, what are the chances of that? It was my first ever final that I went to. My standout memory as a child, I was there at Wembley and now however many years later, I'm playing in my first Champions League final and I couldn't believe it and Nacho then turned it off. That was gutting. But as soon as he finished his break, it was back on. By the time the game rolls around, I felt the magnitude of it. I felt a bit like jelly-legged. And that's the first time it's ever happened to me and I was like, what's going on? Real strange. You can almost feel the cameras on your face zooming in at my ankle, on my shoulder just to make sure everything was all right. It is a different, different atmosphere. It's just that buzz and you can feel the excitement. You can feel the pressure just loading. You get a real kind of feeling for, oh my God, this is huge. You can hear drums from both sides, you can hear chanting from the Madrid fans and it's just crazy. Like a sea of white and a sea of black and yellow at Wembley. This is like my life story rolled into one. You get into the tunnel, you're ready, everything's good to go and I remember the wait just being ages. I think it was Lenny Kravitz performing and you can't hear a thing. You're just literally stuck there in the tunnel looking around at each other. Who's going to break first when you make eye contact with the Dortmund guys? The way Ancelotti tried to calm us all down was you're focusing on the game, block out all the other stuff. I have a lot of respect for Borussia Dortmund regardless of what anyone says. I couldn't thank them enough for what they've done to help me but at the same time, I want to beat them because I want to be a European champion. The game then started. Just to make me a little bit more anxious. There was a stoppage to play when about four idiots ran on back to back to back to back and one ran up to me and I was thinking, mate, I really don't need this right now. I knew they'd come at us. I didn't think they'd come at us so well. Andy Yamey, around Courtois and he died. But they were brilliant. They were far the better team in the first half. I was just thinking, surely I don't lose this final. Surely not. Madsen finds Fulcrum on the stretch. So close. When we got to half time and I could hear the other lads talking, I knew we'd win. Danny said something about, like, they should have killed us. The second half, we moved the ball a little bit better from side to side. We started to be able to create kind of openings. You're just thinking, OK, it's starting to come here. Slowly but surely. And then, corner. Tony Cruz and the legend, who is Danny Carvajal. The smallest man on the pitch but the biggest mentality. In from close. It was like a sucker punch, really. And it was harsh because Dortmund were far better on the day. There's no denying that. But I think we just have that never-say-die attitude where we can score at any moment and then when we do score, we're really hard to take out of that position. I had kind of been able to pull the ball back really well and I just managed to rearrange it. Tried to pass it in the corner. Schlott, he's got a really good block on it, I think, on the bottom where he stood. The ball was a little bit loose. One of them gave it away and my first instinct was just to find Vinny. An assist in a Champions League final, something that no one can ever take away from you. European champion. I can't believe it. I started to well up a little bit and just covered my face. It was lucky for me that Valverde was there to kind of support me in that moment because my shoulders were starting to go and everything. You know, when your shoulders start doing that one, you're like, oh God. We'd had one earlier in the season against Napoli where he kind of took a picture of me doing my celebration. I just thought, what better time to repay it, you know? It was a great moment and obviously the picture will live with me forever. I had to come off for a full time. My cramp was just too much. I'd ran a lot, just gave everything that I had. In those last minutes, there's a lot going through your mind and you think, what if then they score two now and it goes to extra time and I'm on the bench or if it goes to penalties and I can't take it. All that goes through your head. When you hear that whistle, it's just the biggest feeling of joy. You're just full of joy. You don't really know what to do with yourself. The adrenaline gets to you. You're full of emotions. I just saw a couple of the Dortmund boys on the floor and I wanted to go in there and give them a cuddle just to see how they were all right. There's two sides of every story and my side looks great on the day but also for them, I can imagine the heartbreak. It's one that you don't really wish on anyone, especially not lads that you got on with so well. You see the face and you think, you know, I shared a changing room with him for three years and we went to battle so many times and it's hard not to feel a little bit emotional towards them as well but then also it's like, you've got to enjoy moments like that. If you can't enjoy a moment like that, you won't enjoy anything as a footballer. I've seen my mum, my dad and my brother's faces and I'm just like, God, I'm choking up. Jude Bellingham, Champions League winner. How does that feel? Some of your emotions? I've always dreamed of playing in these games and, you know, I was all right until I was in my mum and dad's face there and the amount of nights where they could be at home by seven o'clock and they're doing trips at 11, 12 at night to take me to football, man. I have my little brother there who I'm trying to be a role model for and things like that. Yeah, I can't put it into words. It's the best night of my life. Once more, it's Real Madrid, the empress of European football. Oh man, that's a great moment. You know, you picture it. For years growing up, you know, them being on the side of the pitch when I was playing for Stourbridge, being on the side of the pitch when I was playing for Birmingham in the good times, the bad times, in the rain, in the sun, or mum having a little deck chair out and a hot chocolate, my brother with a ball and my dad just stood like that the whole time. And you do think back and you think, jeez, you look so much into the future and how far you've got to go that you forget how far you've come. And I think for me, it was like almost seeing my three hearts, if you like, all in one place, like they'd always been throughout my career. It capped an unbelievable night and it just capped an unbelievable season. Cool, innit? I feel like I'm still on a bit of a comedown from everything and I felt a bit emotional. There's that many memes of me crying. The last thing I wanted to do was cry again so there'd be more. I spoke to Ruud a little bit after and he was telling me about how I'm going to find it difficult to try and get back up to the right mental state to be able to play in the Euros. It's important that I think I have this time just to chill out a bit because it's just been big game after big game and it's nice to relax for a bit. It's the biggest team achievement on the planet. It's huge, but you don't get time to savour it. I hope he gets to savour it because it's a massive achievement, massive. As soon as you've said, right, celebrate it, enjoy it and then there's going to be the next challenge which is England and the expectation. You've got to have a head like a fortress that can just withstand all that pressure. Because it's almost like you're up here and then you're down there and we're going to be up there again. It's just like the calm before the storm and we know this really is going to be a storm. I've had the week off so I've kind of come down from that high of winning the Champions League and you've got to get yourself back up to a place where you have to be right on it, you have to be intense. Don't come in thinking that it's going to be easy and you can roll up because you're a Champions League winner. Your focus changes pretty quickly. The expectation for the Euros was very high but people don't consider that you now have elite players playing a more elite standard of football than it's ever been, more physically demanding than it's ever been for more games than there's ever been. Tournament football is brutal and it requires a lot more than you've already given. You've had a long season as it is and we're going to ask you to go again. Players are exhausted and you're going to ask them to play seven games with the highest pressure, giving absolutely everything for their country. I just want you guys to know how much it means to everyone back here that you go out there, give it your all, play for the shirt, play for each other and play for the country. We flew out to Germany not long after that. We have to go there wanting to win the tournament and we definitely had that mindset. That kind of pressure has been put on by ourselves but it's a good pressure to have. You want to go there feeling like people fancy you to win it. The dynamic definitely was changed and it does give a different vibe because there's a lot of new players who haven't found their feet in the squad yet. The younger guys who make it so fun, they're the ones that keep the standard of training high, they keep the morale high. You know, I just have such a great relationship with all the lads. If you can get all that stuff right then football becomes the easiest part. At international level, we've been through the point where okay, development and progression is a success but real success now at this point is winning trophies. Good from the start, wanted to really make a mark on the game. I always think about how bad I feel when I probably should be in a position to score and the ball comes across and I'm not there. Threw myself at it. When you score early in a game, your confidence goes to a new level and I felt happy because I delivered for the team again in a big game. Let's do this. When you come and do the press, you've got to play the media as well. I think we're losing at the minute actually. Pickers lost, Gali lost and Adam Wharton lost. 65 is that? Tell you what, that still puts my eye up. What are they throwing? Are they throwing lead darts or what? Microphone available? Yesterday I had to do the press conference. I had to do it because I was the man of the match. Do I have to? What was your overall takeaway of the performance? Was it a case of the first half shows why England are among the favourites and the second half, what could be undoing? No, not quite. I don't agree with that. I used to enjoy doing the media stuff and things and when everyone would kind of take what I said on face value. I think first half shows why we can score goals against any team and the second half shows why we can keep a clean sheet against any team. When I get up there I feel like they're all like vultures waiting for me to say something where it's like half controversial and turn it into like a massive story. Commonly with the team there's a negative theme around all our games, you know, sometimes rightly so but I think in this case you take the positives from the fact that okay maybe we had to hold on at times and suffer a little bit but we kept a clean sheet and when you keep a clean sheet all you have to do is score one goal to win the game. You know one of the most awkward parts of a press conference is this. So they're back here, put their hand up to ask you a question so and then you spend all that time looking for them and then they ask the question instead of looking you in the eye or something they go like that and they're writing down what you said and they're like that and it's like it's so like it's much better when it's personable. Now I do interviews and think god as soon as I'm finished I think I wonder how people are going to see that and really it shouldn't matter. Thank you all, good evening. Paul Walker quicker to it than Christensen and he's opened it up for himself Kyle Walker and there's Kane! He wasn't going to miss that one an England strike first. We've always struggled with the second game in tournament. For the first time at Euro 2024. You know it's a good goal. You give people the chance to do that they'll punish you and they did. Don't get me wrong I understand if you don't play as well as you can for two games in a row you're going to start to hear the criticism get a little bit louder. Court room isn't it? Disgraced brothers. Guilty. Got back about half 12 and then just done recovery this morning really in the sauna, ice bath. It wasn't a great game. Didn't play our best. You got to try and stay positive about everything you know in tournament football playing for England and I think Gareth does a great job of that. On days like today when we have the family days it's important for us to forget a little bit about the game. You know social media you can't avoid it really and you listen to some of the conceptions of the game and how other people saw it and you just think I didn't see it like that at all you know. It's not only pundits YouTubers, TikTokers, things like that they have such a big influence on the way other people think. They all just need to calm down a bit man doing my head in to be honest. The fans that come to the games are a lot more supportive in the sense that they want to see the team do well and I think there's this trend on social media where it's like funny or cool to want to see England lose. Days like today help. It takes your mind away from games coming up. While I'm with these three I don't really want to be on the phone I don't really want to be kind of talking about football. I just want to kind of enjoy being in their company again and then back to work really. Oh on that note Slovenia was a tough one. Everyone's a little bit buff with what's getting said. I think we played with a frustration. Of all the games in the Euro that was by far my worst one. As a team really poor, really sloppy. Ireland started to get a little bit intense. Worst single performance I've ever seen live. It was a disgrace. Three beer glasses were thrown in your direction and can I get your reaction to that? I've been around England for 20 years. I've not seen any other team qualify and receive similar. My job is to guide the team through this. We only will succeed if we're together. Today completely off, no training, no nothing. So late wake up. Yesterday we had Ed Sheeran in. Like literally he just grabs his guitar doesn't even use a mic and he sings and it's unreal. He's so good and he's a top guy as well. Goes around, got time for everyone, staff. He was telling jokes. It's nice to just relax you know to feel like you have the weight of the world off your shoulders. I remember being on the pitch in the last six minutes thinking in my head like you're out. And it's a horrible feeling. I felt sick to be honest. Then another part of my head thinking tell you what if something drops I'm 100% gonna score. Honestly it was almost like the ball caught light off the flick and it was almost kind of glowing and it felt like time just slowed down and I thought the only way I'm scoring here is if I have to just swing a leg at it and if I miss I miss and we go home. As it touched my foot I thought oh my god that's got a chance you know and I remember just watching the ball and I just think yes. I think it's the biggest moment of my career so far the biggest goal of school. Who else? It's a rush of adrenaline but also that's a bit of my character in terms of the confidence because like I've done it all year from Madrid. The actual gesture that I'm doing it's a show of I don't know of balls you know of a spirit of mentality like me and my dad always do it joke we'd always do it when we're kind of playing against each other the guy if I beat him at FIFA it's like such a minor thing you know and almost a joke gesture at that point. Someone films it from the stands then they've captioned it that I'm doing it at the Slovakia bench and it's like I'm not even looking like from where I'm standing the Slovakia bench is like down there I'm literally looking like there. Honestly there's some of the things that we get called in the stadium and some of the things players call me I need to start reporting it clearly. I spoke to Job he was talking to me about the game and how I'm feeling stuff like that he sent me the man in the arena quote I just gave it a little read and calmed me down. Job's really mature for his age really emotionally intelligent I think he knows how to kind of get triggers out of me and that was definitely one that's why when I put it up on Instagram I tagged him in the corner and made sure he felt his love for that. You know you think that the negativity piles on you but then you forget how much positive stuff there is as well and all the people that are slagging you off and saying stuff you're not playing for them anyway you're playing for yourself, your family, your team so don't worry what they say. In terms of performance Switzerland was our best game saying that we go 1-0 down. But then Bukayo Saka stepped up. And then penalty shootout. Taking a penalty honestly it's a horrible feeling. It's not one you enjoy but it's one that if we lose and I've not taken one I couldn't live with myself. Saxon is a big one because he had missed in the last final so I was really happy for him. And then my old mate Trent to win it. And that's when you really start to believe. Both teams are aware that the next goal probably wins it. The manager made two changes which he should get a lot of praise for. I trust wholeheartedly that Gareth knows what he's doing because of his record as an England manager. You know one of the best ever. Oli was brilliant in training the whole time worked his **** off so for him to be able to deliver in that moment like he did and win us that one it's huge. I'd mentally and physically prepared myself for seven games and now it was just one left. This is the one that gives you a shot at history. Spain got the most possession in the tournament hadn't lost in the tournament you're not going to have an easy game against them. Second half came out to the worst possible start. It was important we just stayed in the game at that point don't let the game slip out of reach so that you end up maybe losing two or three. Because of the experiences we'd had previously in the tournament you think if this game still won and there's a little bit of time left we could do something. We've done it again, we're back in the game. We carried on dropping and dropping and dropping and got all in that 80-something minute. You hear that whistle and everything just goes numb. Not again. You kind of want to cry a little bit you're feeling sorry for yourself. There's a sense of like anger you really want to kick some water bottles over. Someone's managed to catch me in that again for f*** sake. Watching all the celebrations watching lads that you played against all year and you just think oh that should be us. And then Gareth come over and said some really nice words and I just apologised I said sorry I couldn't do it for you Gaffer. He said like you've got nothing to feel sorry about. That was the worst bit for me feeling like I let the Gaffer down feeling like I let the staff down who'd sacrificed so much. Like when I sat and I faced the England fans like that you can see it on their face thinking when is it ever going to be our turn? And that hurts because you feel like you want to be the group that delivers it. They always need someone to be the bad guy someone to be the scapegoat and I think it seems like it's going to be me you know and whether people think I played well or not I give absolutely everything for my country and for the team. People talk about my body language all the time I get frustrated because I want to win. I don't like losing. The only thing I care about is the team and the team winning. The only thing I care about the only thing I want in football is to be able to win trophies plonk them on tables and go and party with the lads that I've just suffered and sacrificed for and with. That's all I care about in football so when people make stuff like that that's what hurts me the most. You know it becomes a little bit personal you know I've seen stuff about why I haven't done press interviews and stuff like that and is something wrong with me and it hurts a little bit I'm not gonna lie because I know that it hurts my parents I know that it hurts my brother I know that my friends get hurt by it. You can let yourself get swallowed in it and think you're a loser and not kind of do to be fair what I've done for the last few days you know it's still a bit raw for me but I've been in a hotel room and kind of shut the curtains and locked myself away but I think now it's important that I use this as a motivation to succeed again. You're not going to win everything that's the bottom line that's just a little bit more fuel for the fire. The last year has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotion Dortmund then with massive heartbreak to Real Madrid all the trophies that we won into the Euros with England where we got to the final but lost you've got to take the good with the bad not everything's going to be perfect but I'm so proud of my journey so far for me it's all about me and myself who else? The European Golden Boy Jude Bellingham and the new face of Predator 30 The winner of the Laureus Award Jude Bellingham What a team man, what a team Let's go