This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...
Birmingham City have had a bizarre few years, going from a club that held a stable position in the Championship to a League One side. However, they are back on the up after a difficult time under their former owners.
Tom Wagner has got Blues supporters feeling positively about their team once again, and there is an expectation that they will win promotion back to the second tier at the end of the campaign.
It's a position that fans possibly never saw coming four years ago after they sold Jude Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund for an initial £25m. He had a huge impact during his short period of time in the first team at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, and he has gone on to become one of the best players in the world at just 21.
There is a great feeling of pride from Birmingham for providing the superstar, but he has perhaps surprised some of those at the West Midlands club with just how far he has come since making his debut against Portsmouth in the Carabao Cup in August 2019.
Bellingham's impact has been incredible
Bellingham was just 16 when he made his debut for Blues, going on to make 44 appearances before leaving the club in the summer of 2021.
He impressed greatly in Germany, establishing himself as one of Europe's brightest talents, leading to Real Madrid to buy him for £88.5m, a fee that could rise to £115m in June 2023. He won the Champions League and La Liga in his first season at Los Blancos, playing an incredibly important role in both triumphs.
Jude Bellingham during his Dortmund days
Football League World has asked their Birmingham Pundit, Mike Gibbs, if he is surprised at just how much the midfielder has progressed in the last few years since leaving his boyhood club.
He told FLW: "Am I shocked? Yes and no. I think, having watched him in that first season, it was interrupted by Covid, but having seen him in the flesh, I remember the game against Leeds at home where he scored, assisted and basically ran the game as a 16-year-old.
"I think we always expected him to go on to bigger and better things, to play at the top end of the game, but I think to see where he's got to, he’s probably gone beyond where I thought he'd get to."
Jude Bellingham playing for Birmingham City
Mike continued: "I saw him being a Premier League player, I could have seen him getting into the England team and being successful. But I think the fact that he finished third in the Ballon d’Or list, playing for Real Madrid, as one of their star players. He’s probably the most crucial England player on the pitch.
"I think he has surpassed even my expectations there. So, it’s a bit of a mix really. I think we always expected him to do well, but I think he's definitely surpassed it with the level that he's reached, and he's only going to get better. He’s only young still, so he's only going to improve from here."
Jude Bellingham Birmingham City Stats by Competition (TransferMarkt)
Competition
Championship
FA Cup
Carabao Cup
Bellingham has the qualities to become an all-time great
While it is already common knowledge that Bellingham is one of the best players in the world at this moment in time, he has the capacity to become one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.
At just 21, he has well over a decade of his career left to grow and improve, and he could be one of England's most important players in the next three World Cups.
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He has transformed into a more forward-thinking midfielder since leaving the West Midlands, and he scored a crucial goal in the Euros for his country to keep them in the competition in the final minute of the round of 16, with England on the brink of an early exit.
Birmingham brought one of the most exciting and talented young players into the professional game, trusting him at just 16 to perform in the Championship, and he has repaid their faith in him by going from strength to strength in the seasons since departing.
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