Today Real Madrid have not claimed La Liga or the Champions League since 2023. With off-field issues at the club Bellingham has struggled to repeat the form and goal tally from his standout debut campaign.

He has also dealt with injuries including shoulder surgery that kept him out early in the season.

Questions also surfaced about his place in the England setup.

Thomas Tuchel whose first language is not English sparked debate last summer when the new national coach noted his mother found some of Bellingham's pitch conduct a bit off-putting.

The remark drew widespread coverage and upset those close to the player.

Tuchel later said sorry explaining he chose the word by mistake.

Then in October after being voted England's player of the year Bellingham was omitted from Tuchel's squad.

England had performed well without him in September during his injury recovery and he had featured in just one match for Real since returning.

He is a special player and for special players there can always be special rules Tuchel said at the time.

But we decided to keep with the straightforward decision of inviting the same group.

Jude always deserves to be here. He wanted to be called up. We had a phone call.

Reports in Spain suggested another version that Bellingham himself requested exclusion to focus on fitness.

In the end it appeared Bellingham was no longer an automatic pick.

Indeed in June Tuchel said the midfielder faced competition to start at the World Cup because he had 14 or 15 potential starters in his squad.

At that time Bellingham had featured in only half of the 14 matches since the German took charge in January 2025 with four starts and three substitute appearances.

The question became whether Rogers or Bellingham should start at number 10.

Yet from the World Cup warm-up games against New Zealand and Costa Rica the picture began to shift as Bellingham impressed.

In the opening World Cup match against Croatia Bellingham netted a brilliant solo goal to give England a 3-2 lead.

And against Panama when England needed a spark in the final group fixture Bellingham delivered the decisive goal to open the scoring.

Although substituted in all three group games Bellingham's displays remained positive.

Against DR Congo in the last 32 he delivered a full influential performance.

Then came Mexico.

Two goals in a memorable victory hailed as one of England's finest away results underlined his return to form.

In five matches he has collected three player of the match awards.

These awards require media duties where he has shown maturity and humility downplaying his impact while highlighting the team's effort and unity and praising rivals even offering one award to the opposition.

After the who else celebration of 2024 this time he has said he prefers to assist than score.

His adjusted approach matches his pitch work. His effort complements his skill recall his goal-saving tackle against Mexico.

He has earned praise for flexibility notably shifting between a 10 and eight role based on team needs and forms a core part of England's leadership group alongside Kane and others.

It is not known exactly what occurred between Tuchel and Bellingham.

Was it all exaggerated or did the German exert authority over the squad perhaps addressing main character tendencies?

Yet whatever the facts Bellingham has appeared content performed strongly and played a central role in a united squad.

It is easy to overlook given his achievements that Bellingham is only 23. He has grown up under intense scrutiny.

Bellingham and Kane have been viewed as the essential stars of the England side.

And with a quarter-final against Norway on Saturday there could be further goals to confirm his stature.