'Before every game...' - Sunderland star Jobe Bellingham opens up on pre-match ritual with brother Jude
The Sunderland midfielder has once again featured in the England international’s documentary series.
Sunderland midfielder Jobe Bellingham has opened up on the pre-match exchanges that he and older brother Jude share before they compete for their respective clubs.
The teenager has been in fine form for the Black Cats so far this season, while his elder sibling continues to stake a claim as one of the best players in world football for La Liga giants Real Madrid. But despite representing arguably the biggest club on the planet, Jude has made no secret of the interest that he takes in Jobe’s career, and has frequently been pictured watching Sunderland matches - whether that be in person, or from the Spanish capital.
And Jobe has revealed that he and his brother talk to each other before every game that they contest. During the most recent episode of Jude’s YouTube documentary series, the younger Bellingham is interviewed prior to last season’s Champions League final - a match that Jude and Real won.
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Reminiscing about his sibling’s meteoric rise, the Sunderland starlet said: “The first time I watched him score, I was in the away end. It was unbelievable. I was literally right behind his goal. He scored and the celebration in the crowd was unbelievable. Like, Blues fans just everywhere. I remember seeing J. Bellingham on the BBC Sport app and I was like, ‘What?’. Like, insane.
“People wouldn't even understand how crazy it is, how fast it's gone. If you were to say to someone, ‘This kid in four years is going to be in the Champions League final, playing for Madrid, winning La Liga player of the year in the same season’, genuinely, everyone would have gone, ‘Shut up!’. He could get a Champions League today and he's only 20 - how many more is he going to win?”
He jokingly added: “I feel like I'm giving him way too much credit here, but... Before every game, we say good luck to each other and stuff. I won't get, like, emotional to him - you know, some people would want to message and be like, ‘Come on!’. I think he's that good that he's got it [the Champions League secured].”
Jobe has featured prominently across all four episodes of Jude’s documentary series, with his older brother frequently speaking fondly of the 19-year-old. Addressing comparisons that are often drawn between the two in an earlier interview, the England international said: “The worry is that people judge him based on my achievements. But I'm really conscious of that because I know it's something that people will always throw in his face, and it's not fair because he's an amazing talent, amazing player in his own right. People will use him as a way to have a dig at me and vice versa, so we're almost like each other's biggest fans but also the biggest target for each other because we care about each other so much.
“He has to deal with more than what I would have had to at his age, and he deals with it with so much class. He wants to try and create his own legacy and his own path. At the end of the day as long as he's happy that's all I really care about to be honest. His happiness means more to me than my own.”