Jude Bellingham Reflects on England's Euro 2024 Journey

Jude Bellingham does not dress it up. England reached the Euro 2024 final, came within one game of ending decades of hurt, and yet, for one of the team’s central figures, the whole thing never quite felt right.

The football wasn’t the only problem.

“We got a few things wrong”

Speaking from England’s World Cup base in the United States, Bellingham lifted the lid on a campaign that, from the outside, looked like progress but, inside the camp, felt fractured.

"At the Euros I think we got a few things wrong off the pitch, I don’t feel the group connected as well as it could have for a number of reasons," he said.

Expectation weighed heavily. Gareth Southgate’s side arrived in Germany as one of the favourites, widely tipped as one of two or three nations capable of winning the tournament. The performances never matched the billing. England stumbled through games, never truly imposing themselves, and the mood followed.

"We weren’t playing well, which doesn’t help, so even when we were winning, we didn’t get the feeling that we were as happy as we should be."

It showed. A laboured run to the final ended with defeat to Spain and a lingering sense that something had been left on the table, both tactically and emotionally.

Moments of magic, a backdrop of unease

Bellingham’s own tournament was defined by one of the most dramatic moments in England’s modern history: that last-gasp overhead kick against Slovakia in the last 16, a goal that dragged his country away from the brink of humiliation and into extra time.

From the outside, it was pure theatre. Inside his own head, it was something else.

"I still remember how I was feeling at the time. It always makes me feel a bit uncomfortable because it was such a bad situation," the Real Madrid midfielder admitted.

"We weren't playing well. I remember as a kid watching World Cups and Euros where we crashed out against teams we shouldn’t have gone out to and I remember thinking, 'Wow, I’m about to be a part of one of those moments’. It shakes up the whole of English football."

England survived Slovakia, needed penalties to edge past Switzerland in the quarter-finals, then another late winner to squeeze past the Netherlands in the semi-finals. Each escape added to the drama. It did not ease the tension.

The team never looked like a unified, free-flowing force. Bellingham’s comments now give that uneasy feeling a name.

Tuchel’s “brotherhood” challenge

That is the backdrop Thomas Tuchel has walked into. The new England manager has been explicit: he wants a "brotherhood" in this squad as he chases the World Cup this summer. Connection, unity, shared purpose — all the things Bellingham felt were missing in Germany.

Two years on, the midfielder is again at the heart of the story, but this time the battle is internal. His place in the starting XI is not guaranteed.

Bellingham faces a straight fight with Morgan Rogers for the number 10 role in England’s World Cup opener against Croatia on Wednesday. Tuchel has made that competition clear to both players.

"The manager has made it very clear in a lot of the times where he has spoken that we are playing for the same position," Bellingham said.

What could be a source of tension has instead become a test of the culture Tuchel wants to build.

Brothers in rivalry

Bellingham and Rogers are not distant rivals thrown together by fate and form. They grew up in the same part of the West Midlands, played junior football together, and know each other’s game — and personality — inside out.

"As a person, he is a top guy, he can get along with anyone, can have conversations with anyone," Bellingham said of Rogers.

"He can be a bit loud. We have debates that turn into arguments a lot. But we get on like brothers, to be fair."

That brotherly edge now runs into the sharp reality of elite selection. Bellingham’s stunning display in Wednesday’s final warm-up win over Costa Rica strengthened his claim for the shirt, while Rogers has impressed Tuchel with his own versatility and energy.

"I know that has eased up a bit more now that he sees me playing more positions and Morgs playing more positions, but I honestly have no ill feelings when he is playing and I’m not playing."

It is a revealing line. Two years ago, Bellingham felt the group never truly connected. Now, even in direct competition, he insists there is no bitterness.

Tuchel wants a brotherhood. In Bellingham and Rogers, he already has a test case. The question now is whether the rest of the squad can match that standard when the pressure of a World Cup opener against Croatia hits and every selection, every touch, every reaction is magnified.