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England manager Gareth Southgate is eagerly anticipating the arrival of Jude Bellingham to the national squad after the midfielder’s Champions League triumph with Real Madrid. However, Southgate emphasized that the team’s success does not solely rest on Bellingham’s shoulders.
In a surprising setback, England suffered a 1-0 defeat to Iceland in their final warm-up match at Wembley on Friday. Bellingham, who was granted additional rest following his victory with Real Madrid, will join the 26-man squad last.
Commenting on Bellingham’s potential impact, Southgate said, “I’m sure he will [lift the squad], but it is not his responsibility to do that. We are not putting everything on Jude. We’ve got a lot of good players and it is a collective thing to go and try to win this tournament.”
Bellingham, 20, has had a remarkable first season in Spain, being named La Liga player of the season after scoring 19 goals and leading Real Madrid to the league title by a ten-point margin.
Despite the loss to Iceland, Southgate took a moment to praise other young talents in his squad. Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka made a substitute appearance after missing significant training time, and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer earned his fourth cap following an impressive season.
“It was also good to get Bukayo on the pitch. He has missed a lot of the training, and we needed to see him out there as well,” Southgate remarked.
On Palmer, he added, “He’s had a fabulous season and got himself into a couple of fabulous positions. He probably took a touch too many on both occasions, but the fact is he was in there on both occasions and looked dangerous.”
