After another astonishing performance, Jude Bellingham received more plaudits not least from former England great, Wayne Rooney.
The 20-year-old ran the show against Italy for the Three Lions and helped them qualify for Euro 2024, and the levels he reached in the match left many purring.
It follows on from a series of man-of-the-match showings for current club, Real Madrid.
Despite the pressure of wearing Zinedine Zidane’s old number five shirt, Bellingham has taken to life in the Spanish capital like a duck to water.
Rooney, now captain of Bellingham’s first club, Birmingham City, is in complete awe, however, he did sound a note of caution.
“He’s on such a good run of form and what’s important is that when [his form dips] — and it will dip at some point — we don’t kill him and we get behind him and stick with him,” he was quoted as saying by The Telegraph (subscription required).
“It happens to all players and it will happen to Jude. We’ve seen it with Marcus [Rashford] and Raheem [Sterling] as well.
“Jude has got the potential to be one of, if not the best, if he carries on the way he is going, so I think we really have to support him because in my eyes he’s the future captain of England. We need to protect him and really look at him as the future of England.”
It’s pertinent to dwell on the fate that has befallen those players that have gone before the youngster.
One day they’re the best thing since sliced bread, the next they’re yesterday’s man. It’s the harsh realities of a footballer’s life, particularly when you consider that every aspect of a player’s character and skill set is now analysed to death by a multitude of broadcast media.
Bellingham, however, does appear to have an old head on your shoulders, and his trajectory from Birmingham to Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid doesn’t appear to have fazed him in the slightest.
He’ll certainly need to puff his chest out and walk tall when he starts to get the brickbats thrown at him rather than the plaudits.