Jude Bellingham insists he’s rediscovering his love for the sport after enduring a torrid few months which culminated in him being dropped by England boss Thomas Tuchel.
The Real Madrid star returned to goalscoring form and produced the decisive moment in last night’s 1-0 Champions League win over Juventus.
Bellingham missed the beginning of the brand new season after undergoing shoulder surgery and suffered the ignominy of missing out on being included in Tuchel’s most up-to-date England squad.
The German intends to talk to Bellingham in between now and the November games against Serbia and Albania, with a view to him possibly being recalled.
He said recently: ‘I assume so. Why not? In fact, he’s a very important player, he’s a giant player.
‘I’ll speak to quite a lot of players, also to the blokes that can get a text from me, who weren’t in camp, especially them.
‘Because these guys who at the moment are here, they’ve the reward and so they feel the reward.
‘And it’s now needed also that I stay in contact with the opposite guys.
‘Nobody has done anything fallacious. It’s not a punishment or whatever and I feel once I text them and I speak to them, that everyone seems to be desirous to come back and that is the way it must be.
‘So there are quite a lot of guys on the market who would need to be with us.’
The noise around Bellingham’s absence was heightened because it got here on the back of Tuchel having to apologise after mistakenly saying in an interview that his mother found the midfielder ‘repulsive’.
Bellingham gave the England boss a timely reminder of his qualities last night with a typical poacher’s effort to make sure Real recorded their third straight win within the competition.
Afterwards he said: ‘I’ve had shoulder surgery, dropped with the national team… It’s nice to have that moment where you may come back and luxuriate in playing your football.’
He added: ‘It’s an incredible feeling. I haven’t scored in an extended time. I dream of that moment within the Champions League against an incredible team and scoring the winning goal. It’s incredible.
‘Here at home, obviously in my first start of the season, I felt very comfortable, I felt superb, and I enjoyed it lots, to be honest.
‘Playing well is very important, but scoring the winning goal also helps the team lots. I’m very joyful. It’s an incredible night.’
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