Bellingham, 19 years old and a retired jersey

England put his hands on his head when he Birmingham City announced in July 2020 that he will retire the jersey of Jude Bellingham. Since then, no one has been able to use the number ’22’ of the young Englishman, who barely played 44 games in Birmingham but with his transfer left around 23 million euros in the club’s coffers.

A sum at which Birmingham, who at the time were flirting with relegation League OneHe saved his finances. For that reason they took back the shirt of a promising player, yes, but who barely contributed four goals and three assists to the first team. Normally this honor is reserved for a player with a long history at the club, but in this case Birmingham gambled because bellingham would become one of the most important English players, and now the real Madrid He signed him for 103 million euros, plus 30 in variables, it can be said that he was right.

“The number 22 has become synonymous with Jude and his promotion to the first team aged just 16. Therefore, the club decided to retire his number to remember one of our own and inspire the rest,” said the Birmingham at that time.

Bellingham did not participate in this decision. The Englishman signed his first professional contract in June 2020, after participating in the first team since he was fifteen, but just one month after that agreement, he signed for Dortmund.

The then CEO of the club, Xuandong Ren, At a dinner at the end of the season, he announced that they would retire the Bellingham shirt with ’22’, a number that came from the words of Mike Dodds, his coach at the quarry, who told him he could play as ‘4’ , number ‘8’ or number ’10’. “He reminds me of Paul Gascoigne”Dodds told The Athletic a few years ago.

However, Ren, to whom they came to offer small planes with messages requesting his departure St Andrews, He made this decision, one of the most extravagant in modern football, after losing the last game of the season 3-1 against Derby County.

“To be honest, I don’t think I deserve it, if we think about my performances with the team. I think I was good, but you have to be at a very high level to have your shirt retained. For me, it’s not retired, but reserved for my return and get them back into the Premier League,” Bellingham told The Times.

Birmingham fans are also clear: “It is one of the most ridiculous decisions in the history of football.” And this shirt removal is common in sports such as basketball, but not football, and even less so in English, where one of the few notable cases is the Bobby Moore, whose number ‘6’ was retired by West Ham United. Ajax Amsterdam, for example, withdrew the ’14’ from Johan Cruyff, while Milan removed the ‘6’ from Franco Baresi and Naples in ’10 by Diego Armando Maradona.