Jude Bellingham’s best friend in the England squad you didn’t know about – with the pair going back as far as the Premier League star’s fifth birthday party!
Jude Bellingham is one of the best players in the world – whether he is lighting it up on the European stage for Real Madrid or saving England in a major tournament.
It seems the 21-year-old will be the main man for Thomas Tuchel, playing in attacking midfield role and leaving the likes of Cole Palmer and Phil Foden having to adjust their games if they want to fit in the side.
Bellingham is the poster boy of the modern England. A technically sound player who probably hasn’t yet shown his best for his country, but now ready to grab his chance – if you can call it that – with both hands.
He is one of just four players who don’t ply their trade in the country they represent at international level. While he is currently starring in Spain, captain Harry Kane is in Tuchel’s native Germany, Jordan Henderson plays for Ajax in the Netherlands and Kyle Walker is in Italy with AC Milan – albeit on loan from Manchester City.
That said, when all is said and done, he is a boy from Brum – not the first and not the last in the England squad. Jack Grealish perhaps the most notable.
But there is someone else from Bellingham’s hometown, his best friend who is now by his side in the England squad – someone maybe not known to as many, and that man is Morgan Rogers – who, in the last camp, branded Bellingham his ‘little big brother’.
Jude Bellingham (left) has a best friend in the England squad that no one knew about – Morgan Rogers (right)
The two grew up five minutes from each other and Bellingham went to Rogers’ fifth birthday party nearly 20 years ago
They also played alongside each other at England youth level and against each other when in the academies of West Brom and Birmingham
Rogers, who has starred for Aston Villa in both the Premier and Champions League this season, made his first start for the Three Lions on Monday night as he lined up from the off against Latvia.
18 months ago, he was playing in the Championship for Middlesbrough, having joined the club for £1.5million from Manchester City, who were no longer interested in his services.
Rogers, 22 but then 17, joined City in 2019, leaving West Brom in the Midlands to take the next step in his career. Bellingham, a year later, would join Borussia Dortmund from Birmingham.
Rogers acknowledges there were higher hopes for him than Bellingham, who often comments on his friends’ social media posts, at that stage, but things didn’t go his way. Speaking to ITV before the clash with Latvia, he admits that he found it hard to express himself in a rigid system.
Loan spells to the likes of Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool followed, before he settled at Boro under Michael Carrick. He then joined Villa in 2024.
12 goals and seven assists later, he is now one of the most exciting attacking prospects in the Premier League – and perhaps no one is more proud than Bellingham.
It’s obvious when you know. The duo are close friends – maybe even best friends – regularly seen smiling next to each other before the few England games they have been involved in together.
They are now both in the senior England squad following Rogers’ recent addition to the set-up
It’s likely they will be playing together for years to come, with Rogers just 22 and Bellingham 21
They both featured in Thomas Tuchel’s first game in charge, and both started the second
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It goes back to Rogers’ fifth birthday. ‘I don’t remember it, but apparently he came to my party,’ England’s newest man reveals.
‘It made it even sweeter, sharing the pitch with him again,’ he says. ‘It’s so nice, knowing I can share these moments with him and that he feels happy and proud as well.
‘My mum knows his parents quite well, to do with work and stuff. We have always been around each other, and playing against each other in the academies.
‘Being in the first Under-15 camp together, both being from Birmingham, we kind of stuck to each other, and it’s from then on.
‘We grew up probably five minutes away from each other. We have kind of been rivals, me as West Brom and him at Birmingham.’
They played pretty much alongside each other at Wembley on Monday. In the 26th minute, they tried a neat one-two, with Rogers unable to flick the ball back to his mate under pressure.
But the two are likely to be by each other’s sides for a long time to come. They could yet meet in the Champions League semi-final. Rogers is on the fringes for now, but, if he carries up his current form, he will be a regular just like Bellingham.
