Wayne Rooney backs Jude Bellingham to be ‘huge’ player for England

Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has predicted that Jude Bellingham will be a huge player for England, thanks to his mentality and style of play.

Bellingham is one of the best prospects in Europe and is already attracting interest from the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.

The youngster, who was a transfer target for Man United in recent seasons, joined Borussia Dortmund two seasons ago from Birmingham City but has developed himself into one of the best midfielders in Europe, thanks to his superb form at Dortmund and he’s one of Gareth Southgate’s selected players for the 2022 World Cup squad.

Rooney remembered his first encounter with the then 16-year-old during their times in the Championship and the former England international was pleased with Bellingham’s performance and and said nothing short of nice words about the Dortmund midfielder.

“I played against Jude Bellingham when he was at Birmingham & I was playing at Derby,” Rooney said on talkSPORT.

“He man-marked me, when he was about 16 or 17 years of age, and what I really liked about him is every time I passed the ball off he’d leave a stud on me!

🔥 “I played against Bellingham when he was at Birmingham & I was at Derby.”

😳 “He man-marked me and what I really liked about him is every time I passed the ball he’d leave a stud on me!”

Wayne Rooney says Jude Bellingham will be a “huge” player for England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/hAVw0vYx3e

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) November 15, 2022

“And just to show the character to go out to Germany and take that league by storm and that mentality to perform. Obviously he’s been captain in quite a few of games as well.

“He’s going to be huge playing for them [England]. Just that mentality, even though he’s young, he can put in some of that character in the rest of the squad in my eyes.”