What the Jobe Bellingham signing could bring to Borussia Dortmund
Jobe Bellingham is following in the footsteps of his older brother by making the move to the Bundesliga this summer.
They know how to look after a Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund. After all, it was at the Westfalenstadion where Jude became one of the best young players in the world, ultimately earning a €103m transfer to Real Madrid two summers ago. Now, Jobe is hoping to follow a similar career path to his brother.
Reports claim Dortmund have agreed a fee of €32m with Sunderland to sign Bellingham after the young midfielder helped the Black Cats achieve promotion back to the Premier League. The 19-year-old played 43 games in the Championship last season and is ready for the next step in his development.
Dortmund will give Bellingham a platform to reach a higher level. Comparisons between the two Bellingham brothers are unavoidable, but there are plenty parallels to draw between them, and not just in terms of their decision to move to the Bundesliga at such a young age. Jobe and Jude are cut from the same cloth.
Like Jude, Jobe is an attack-minded central midfielder by trade. At Birmingham City, the younger of the two brothers was given the license to get forward, making good use of his long strides and natural instincts for getting into the opposition box. The two Bellinghams are very similar in this regard.
On top of this, both brothers have an excellent first touch which allows them to operate in tight spaces. Jobe and Jude do their best work when surrounded by opponents when they can use their physicality to shield the ball and find space with it. In a three-man midfield, they can lend a hand to all areas of the game.
Last season, though, Jobe was deployed in a deeper role for Sunderland. This is where the younger brother is perhaps more comfortable, holding his own as one half of a double pivot when Jude Bellingham has sometimes struggled to play his best football in this position. It was in the heart of midfield that Jobe was a central pillar of a promotion-winning side.
“He’s still a young player with the ability to play in many different roles,” said Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris when asked about Bellingham’s best position and the impact he made for Sunderland. “But I like him as a No. 8, because I think he’s an offensive midfielder. He can express his power, his ability to run and his ability to press – to link defence and attack.”
In Germany, Bellingham will surely receive a high number of minutes on the pitch for a Borussia Dortmund team that lacked quality in central midfield last season. Indeed, the 19-year-old will offer the sort of dynamism and energy the likes of Emre Can and Pascal Gross failed to as the Black and Yellows suffered a difficult campaign.
Despite making the Champions League final two seasons ago, there is an acute sense that Dortmund are at a critical juncture in their modern history. For a long time, the Westfalenstadion was a finishing school for some of the best young players in Europe – see Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, Christian Pulisic, Ousmane Dembélé, İlkay Gündoğan, Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski and, of course, Bellingham.
More recently, Dortmund fans demanded that their team build something for the here and now, and in a sense they came close to achieving that objective, coming within one match of winning the Bundesliga title two seasons and the Champions League last season. Dortmund have been football’s nearly men.
Bellingham’s signing signals a shift back to the strategy that made Borussia Dortmund one of the most exciting, vibrant clubs in the world for such a long time. Their project is an enticing one for young players, especially after a late-season run which saw Niko Kovač’s team salvage Champions League qualification. Bellingham will pit himself against some of Europe’s best next season.
Football has produced many pairs of siblings who reached the top level. The Nevilles were important players for Manchester United and England. Kolo and Yaya Touré played together at Manchester City. The De Boers were also brothers who both made their mark at the peak of European football, playing for Barcelona and the Netherlands over a number of years.
In Jobe and Jude Bellingham, English football has two siblings who could be a big part of their next generation. Jude, of course, is already an established member of the national team and widely considered one of the best players in the world. Jobe has a long way to go to reach that level, but his transfer to Dortmund might have moved him a little closer.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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