creek. One is 22, the other is 21 – the best is only 19.
For years we’ve been wondering what it will really look like as English football steps into the future, into the Age of Enlightenment.
Pretty much exactly like that.
It was sloppy, raunchy, and bloody—but suddenly it was as if someone had decided to plug in and push a button.
light. life. energy.
England was electrified.
For about 40 minutes, they again played a slow-moving static football. Perhaps that was the plan, perhaps the intention throughout was to wait and wait – but for long periods of the first half they seemed unable to even pass the ball forward from the backline.
On the touchline, Senegalese captain Aliou Cisse urged his players to go further, to push Harry Maguire and John Stones even further.
It gave results.
Just before the recent World Cup, Senegal midfielder Boulay Dia had a trial for Airbus UK Proton – the company’s old farm team based in the Welsh regional leagues – without being signed. Now he pushed forward first with a great chance for Ismaila Sarr, and then forced Jordan Pickford himself to make a counter-rebound save.
Senegal could have taken the lead before half-time. Instead, they were down by two balls when the whistle blew.
The big man of the match had the number 22 on his back
A football match undergoes a complete change of scenery across from the half-time break every now and then. However, it is very unusual for it to turn over completely within a few minutes while the first half is about to end.
Until then, England had created nothing at all. Now they’ve scored two goals and in just over five minutes, they could have scored two more.
To really underline their conversion, they scored another goal early in the second half, and that was for that game.
It is important to choose your positions, to deliver the shocks where you really feel them. Ten minutes is all it takes, if you can really make use of it.
Phil Foden split, connected and opened all targets and was generally irresistible. Bukayo Saka scored his third World Cup goal in his third World Cup start. Harry Kane put on a ball, assisted with hockey and played like Briton Karim Benzema.
However, it was clear to all that the truly great man of the match had the number 22 on his back and was called Judd Bellingham. It has been apparent for some time that he is the best on the field in a very high percentage of the games he plays.
He had just turned 17 and was ready for Borussia Dortmund two summers ago. His boyhood club, Birmingham City, then promptly retired his shirt number.
Birmingham City has been around for 145 years. Judd Bellingham has played for their first team on 41 occasions. But this is the extent of his impression.
Like watching Rooney play Euro 2004
Watching him play in this World Cup is a bit like watching Wayne Rooney play in Euro 2004, but in a completely different role.
Ronnie at the time was an 18-year-old primal force, completely fearless and half as unstoppable as a human brick. Bellingham has the same kind of irreverence as a forward – the same conviction of being on the path to world domination – but a different balance in both his game and his personality.
For better or for worse, Wayne Rooney was a product of old English football. From street games in jerseys as goalposts, a diet of fish and chips, and a Saturday routine of running around the pub even as a young boy.
The new generation comes from a different reality. Foden and Saka may have grown up in Stockport and Ealing respectively – classic working-class areas – but in football terms they were created by the billionaire affluence of the Premier League.
Their talents are honed through award-winning nutrition and recovery programs and lawns in gardening competitions.
Enlightenment?
Jude Bellingham may have belonged at Birmingham City, but he’s been part of England’s unique and proud national team apparatus since he was just 13 years old.
English Enlightenment? Enlightenment? Maybe that’s what it looks like, whether on a small or a large scale.
These are the men who not only learned how to tackle football in tight spaces – and were given an almost Spanish first touch – but are also versatile players immersed in a very different kind of professionalism.
They have all the conditions to become one of the best football players in the world.
On Saturday they play against the world champions. Then they face a 23-year-old named Kylian Mbappé – and then they face someone who has already reached where they all aspire.