Jude Bellingham's Fight for England's World Cup Spot
Thomas Tuchel has never been shy of a confrontation, tactical or personal. Now Jude Bellingham finds himself right at the heart of the England manager’s latest battle line.
The Real Madrid midfielder, once an automatic pick under Gareth Southgate, is no longer guaranteed his place. Not even close, if you take Tuchel at his word.
“Yes, he has,” the German said when asked directly if Bellingham faces a fight to make England’s World Cup starting XI. No soft landing. No diplomatic dodge.
“He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters. These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”
In other words: status earned yesterday does not protect you tomorrow.
From untouchable to uncertain
Bellingham barely left the pitch at Euro 2024. He missed just 29 minutes across seven matches, the central pillar of Southgate’s England and the emotional reference point of a squad built around his intensity.
Tuchel’s England is a different country.
Since the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach took charge in January 2025, Bellingham has started only four matches, with three more appearances from the bench. Numbers that would have been unthinkable a year ago.
While Bellingham has watched more than he has played, another name has quietly become central to Tuchel’s plans: Morgan Rogers. The Aston Villa attacker has featured in 12 of Tuchel’s 13 games and was the only player involved in all eight World Cup qualifiers. If there is such a thing as undroppable in this new regime, it looks more like Rogers than Bellingham.
Injuries have not helped. A shoulder problem ruled Bellingham out of two qualifiers last September. Tuchel then left him out of the October camp entirely, including a qualifier against Latvia. He returned to the squad in November, only to miss March’s friendlies with a persistent hamstring issue. Momentum, once his greatest ally, deserted him.
A volatile relationship
The football has not been the only story. The relationship between Tuchel and Bellingham has been dragged into the spotlight more than once.
Last June, in the aftermath of a defeat to Senegal, Tuchel branded Bellingham’s on-field behaviour “repulsive” – a word that detonated across back pages and phone-ins. He later apologised, but the mark remained. In November, he spoke again of needing to “review” Bellingham’s behaviour after the midfielder reacted angrily to being substituted against Albania.
This is not the usual manager-star dynamic England have grown used to. Southgate wrapped his key players in trust and public backing. Tuchel prods, tests, confronts. Bellingham, famously combative and fiercely driven, has met that challenge head-on. Sometimes too directly for his manager’s taste.
Yet for all the friction, Tuchel’s admiration for Bellingham’s game has never really been in doubt.
“You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite,” he said after England’s 1-0 win over New Zealand in Tampa, their World Cup warm-up on Saturday. “This is his key characteristic, but you can see that he comes from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch.”
The pressure finally told in Florida. Bellingham came on at half-time, took the captain’s armband and drove England through the second half, a reminder of why he became the face of a generation in the first place. Tuchel, who measures his praise, sounded genuinely encouraged.
“He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season, the Champions League season and campaign for the championship in Spain, so this was very unfortunate for Real Madrid and for him personally,” Tuchel said. “But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he's fresh, he wants to play and he's in top shape.”
A ‘sweet spot’ or a crossroads?
That “sweet spot” might be the most important phrase of all. Tuchel sees a player restored physically, hungry, ready to impose himself again. Bellingham sees a World Cup looming and a starting place no longer assured.
The dynamic is clear. Tuchel has built a squad he believes can be rotated without obvious drop-off, a group of “14 or 15 proper starters” all jostling for position. Bellingham is not the automatic choice; he is part of the fight.
For a 22-year-old who has already carried club and country, that represents both a challenge and a test of ego. For Tuchel, it is exactly the kind of internal competition he craves.
England head to the World Cup with a Real Madrid star who once felt indispensable now having to scrap for his shirt. If Bellingham really is in that sweet spot, the next few weeks will show whether it becomes his tournament again – or the moment England move on without him at the centre of everything.
