Hey Jobe! Younger Bellingham has Borussia Dortmund and England singing from same hymn sheet

It came as a low murmur originally, amplified by the comparatively lower slopes of the roof around Cincinnati's TQL Stadium, but steadily, it built to a chest-thumping roar.

When his elder brother graced Westfalenstadion before his mega-money move to Real Madrid, his name lent itself to the Yellow Wall, to their lusty rendition of a Beatles classic.

• Read more | WATCH: Jobe Bellingham scores superb first goal for Borussia Dortmund against Mamelodi Sundowns

But if it isn't broke, don't fix it too much - and thus, when Jobe Bellingham capped a superb first-half performance with his first goal for Borussia Dortmund, their fans need only a minor tweak to their songbook.

The teenager strikingly holds the shadow of his elder sibling Jude not as a cross to bear, his surname less the albatross around his neck so much as it appears to be the promises of prophecies fulfilled.

That is a feat of self-possession almost frightening in itself, irrespective of age. The fact he is yet to reach 21 makes it all the more remarkable - and like his brother, leaves questions where the sky may be.

At one of the most entertaining games of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup so far, Bellingham followed his cameo turn off the bench in their opener with Fluminense with a first club start against Mamelodi Sundowns.

Amid a pinball encounter that rewarded both partisan and neutral fans with high-stakes entertainment and seven goals, it was still almost with disbelief that he rose head and shoulders above the rest.

Deployed at the tip of a four-man midfield in the pocket, there to feed Serhou Guirassy and Julian Brandt ahead of him, the 19-year-old offered an incisiveness and intelligence that immediately conjured memories to the fore.

Three years ago, another Bellingham tore holes through defences as he did, deploying a dazzling array of technical nous and showmanship, gradually enhanced to a consummate swagger.

Now, with his near-identical frame, down to the fade-cut trim along his temples, the younger man not only invoked near-modern nostalgia - he sought to rewrite it as he emulated it too.

In choosing Dortmund from among his suitors, there is no path to escape the narrative that Bellingham will follow in his brother's boots, walking the same path from Birmingham City, even if he took a diversion to Sunderland along the way.

That path, for the elder man, opened the door to England honours and wunderkid selection at Euro 2020, delayed by a year, and cemented shortly after at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

(Getty Images)

Now, for the first time since Euro 2004, when Gary and Phil Neville both were included by Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Three Lions could be poised to name two brothers in a major tournament squad.

There is both a long way to go and yet so little time before Thomas Tuchel takes his team back to North America this time next year, with qualification yet to be secured, though seen by many as a formality.

There too are difficulties for the younger Bellingham to force his way into a squad occupied by generational attacking midfield talent - not least his own brother, but Cole Palmer and Phil Foden too.

Yet as he brought a deflected ball down from his chest to strike a superb half-volley in for his first Dortmund goal, the future seemed to flash before the eyes of all those watching in Ohio.

Come next summer, it seems implausible Jude Bellingham will not be the second man to walk out after Harry Kane as England seek to finally end sixty years of hurt.

But it no longer seems impossible either that following him down the tunnel could be the man tipped by himself as the future - just a little bit sooner than many might have expected.

As Dortmund's fans serenaded his exit from the field with another tweaked rendition of Hey Jude, Bellingham gave them a wave in salute, named as Player of the Match.

England may want to find the hymn sheet themselves sooner rather than later. Right now, it seems like the only way is up for a man ready to take a sad song and make it better.

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