Wes Brown has identified the “same” quality that Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham shares with one Manchester United legend.
Jude Bellingham was widely praised for his impact at Real Madrid last season after Los Blancos signed him from Borussia Dortmund in 2023.
The 21-year-old Madrid midfielder established himself as a key figure for Carlo Ancelotti and scored an impressive 23 times in 42 appearances last season.
Bellingham, who also had 13 assists across all competitions in the 2023-24 season, lifted both a La Liga title and a Champions League trophy with Madrid.
The England international had been tipped to play a starring role for the Three Lions at Euro 2024 in Germany after his impressive debut season in Spain.
Brown compares Bellingham to Man Utd legend
Jude Bellingham has started all four of England’s Euro 2024 matches so far and has made his impact at this summer’s UEFA tournament.
The former Borussia Dortmund star scored the winner for Gareth Southgate’s men in their opening Group A match against Serbia.
Bellingham then made his mark in the last 16 after he stopped England from crashing out of the Euros with a superb overhead kick against Slovakia.
The Three Lions star’s injury-time strike pulled England level before Harry Kane scored the winner for Gareth Southgate’s men in extra time.
Speaking on the Euro Thrash podcast, Wes Brown insisted that Bellingham shares the same confidence as Manchester United legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
“I don’t think it is arrogance, I just think it is confidence. Cristiano Ronaldo had the same thing,” he said.
“He would get a lot of stick early on and he would come in the next day and be like, ‘Ok, I will prove them wrong.’ He knew he was going to make mistakes but ultimately would focus on what he’s doing regardless of a missed chance, missed tackle.
“He would say, ‘This is football and I am just going to get better and better.’ Jude shows that. He also shows his frustration at times because he knows he is capable of doing something like that.
“He’s not been in every game, he’s not been in every moment and for me, but without Jude’s goal, we’re out.”
Southgate makes Bellingham admission
England will now face Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 after engineering their 2-1 comeback win against Slovakia on the weekend.
Speaking after the Slovakia match, Southgate admitted that Bellingham was almost pulled off before the Madrid star scored his crucial equaliser for England.
“We were thinking should we take him off, but you know he is capable of those sorts of moments,” he said.
“With 15 minutes to go, you wonder if he is out on his feet.
“We know in the game itself we needed to [do] better with the ball, we couldn’t find the right solutions in the first half and we did it better in the second.
“Under that pressure, they kept probing. In the end, it is the old-fashioned long throw that gets the goal, those moments can happen when you keep wearing a team down.”