Jude Bellingham is one of the best players in the world – whether he is illuminated on the European stage for Real Madrid or England in a large tournament.
It seems that the 21-year-old will be the most important man for Thomas Tuchel, plays in the attacks of the midfield role and leaving Cole Palmer and Phil Foden have to adjust their games if they want to fit in the side.
Bellingham is the poster boy of modern England. A technically healthy player who has probably not shown his best for his country, but now ready to take his chance – if you can call it that – with both hands.
He is one of only four players who do not manage their trade in the country that they represent at international level. While he is currently playing in Spain, Captain Harry Kane is in the native Tuchel, Jordan Henderson plays for Ajax in the Netherlands and Kyle Walker is in Italy with AC Milan – albeit on loan from Manchester City.
That said, when everything is said and done, he is a boy of Brumm – not the first and not the last in the English team. Jack Grealisk perhaps the most striking.
But there is someone else from the Bellingham's hometown, his best friend who is now by his side in the English team – someone who may not be known there, and that man is Morgan Rogers – who burns his 'little big brother' in the last camp Bellingham.
Rogers, who played for Aston Villa this season in both the prime minister and the Champions League, made his first start for the Three Lions on Monday evening when he stood in line opposite Latvia.
18 months ago he played in the Middlesbrough Championship, after he joined the club for £ 1.5 million from Manchester City, who were no longer interested in his services.
Rogers, 22 but then 17, came to City in 2019 and left West Brom in the Midlands to take the next step in his career. Bellingham, a year later, would join Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham.
Rogers acknowledges that there were higher expectations for him than Bellingham, who often comments on the social media messages of his friends, at that stage, but it didn't work. Speaking with ITV for the collision with Latvia, he admits that he found it difficult to express himself in a rigid system.
Loan spells to Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool followed, before he settled at Boro under Michael Carrick. Then he came to Villa in 2024.
12 goals and seven assists later, he is now one of the most exciting attacking prospects in the Premier League – and perhaps no one is proud than Bellingham.
It is clear if you know. The duo are good friends – perhaps even best friends – who regularly smiled side by side before the few English games they have been involved in.
It goes back to Rogers' fifth birthday. “I don't remember, but apparently he came to my party,” the newest man in England reveals.
“It made it even sweeter and shared the field with him again,” he says. 'It is so nice, knowing that I can share these moments with him and that he also feels happy and proud.
'My mother knows his parents very well, to make with work and such. We have always been together and play against each other in the academies.
'In the first camp under 15 are together, both from Birmingham, we held a little together, and it is from that moment.
“We probably grew up in five minutes. We have been a kind of rivals, I like West Brom and him in Birmingham. '
They played almost side by side on Wembley on Monday. In the 26th minute they tried a neat one-two, where Rogers were unable to put the ball back under pressure to his partner.
But the two are probably on each other's side for a long time. They could still meet in the semi -final of the Champions League. Rogers is on the edge for the time being, but if he instructs his current form, he will be a fixture, just like Bellingham.
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