It’s fair to say that Jude Bellingham’s celebration against Slovakia hasn’t exactly gone down well.
The Real Madrid megastar was the Three Lions’ hero in their Euro 2024 last 16 win, scoring an equaliser in stoppage time when it looked like they’d been on the next plane home from Germany.
Harry Kane went on to find the winner in extra time, sending England through to a quarter-final tie with Switzerland, but post-match attention was focused on Bellingham.
He quickly went viral for a lewd gesture to the crowd, but it was his supposed words during his goal celebration that seems to have triggered ex-pros the most.
Having just bagged a stunning overhead kick, the LaLiga Player of the Season and Ballon d’Or contender was seen shouting: “Who else?”
Responding to the scenes, former Fulham manager and Manchester United assistant Rene Meulensteen wasn’t impressed.
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He told talkSPORT: “It surprises me because so far the only thing you’ve heard about Jude Bellingham is what a wonderful kid he is and he’s so well-mannered and well-spoken and all that, so it was really surprising for me when that came out, there must be some kind of change taking place.
“Maybe [he’s believing his own hype] but he needs to land back on his feet very quickly because at the end of the day it’s all about performances.
“He scored a goal in the opening game and he’s not really hit the same heights in the other games and he got away with it scoring a goal in that game. There’s not really any justification for shouting something like that in the camera.”
Bellingham is England’s joint top scorer with Kane at the Euros with two goals, and has largely been the nation’s talisman, also scoring a crucial matchwinner in the opening game against Serbia.
England have far from impressed, though, with Bellingham included, and talkSPORT’s Chief Football Correspondent Alex Crook thinks his reaction could cause problems.
“Every ex-player I’ve spoken to over here has told me if one of their teammates scored a goal and mouthed ‘who else?’ into the camera that wouldn’t go down well in the dressing room,” he explained.
When it was put to Meulensteen if Bellingham’s actions were just a display of self-confidence after a stunning debut campaign in Spain, the Dutchman wasn’t so sure.
“The self confidence shows in your actions on the pitch, when you thread balls through gaps that leave people thinking, ‘how did he do that?’” Meulensteen said.
“What he should have done on the back of England’s performance is picked the ball up and ran back to the halfway line and say, ‘thank God we got the goal, now let’s put the game to bed’.
“There wasn’t a justification for it, yes they got through but not on the basis of the performance, it was a get out of jail card.”