Jude Bellingham explains weird gesture was not to Slovakia bench

Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham was right on time again for his national team on Sunday evening, as the Three Lions scraped past Slovakia at Euro 2024. Bellingham invented an overhead kick deep into stoppage time to equalise for England, before Harry Kane headed the winner in extra time.

Bellingham, who turned 21 this weekend, has made a habit of late goals this season, scoring four of them for Los Blancos and twice in stoppage time for England. After his customary arms out to the crowd celebration, he could be seen mouthing to the fans ‘who else?’

Then he was seen blowing a kiss and gesturing seemingly to his genitals, which was interpreted as to the Slovakia bench. However Bellingham was quickly on Twitter/X to clarify that it was instead intended for some of his friends.

After the match, Bellingham admitted that he enjoyed giving it back to the fans and the press in England, with some of the former whistling him, and some of the latter calling for him to be dropped from the side.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things. Playing for England is an enjoyable feeling but it’s also a lot of pressure. You hear people talk a lot of rubbish. It’s nice when you can deliver and give them a little bit back,” he told talkSport.

“Maybe it was a message to a few people. I was very happy at the end, lots of adrenaline. You know what I mean by the rubbish. Playing for England should be the most proud moment of your career but often it’s quite difficult.

“There’s a really high intense pressure. The fans expect a lot from us regardless of what happened in recent tournaments years and years ago. People talk a lot. You do have to take it personally a little bit. We work so hard at this game.”

He accused fans of piling on the team too.

“We come in every day, we work hard to put on a performance for the fans, sometimes it doesn’t go well and sometimes it feels like there’s a a bit of a pile on, it’s not nice to hear. But you can always use it and for moments like that, it’s nice to throw it back to some people.”

Certainly Bellingham has shown he can more than handle the pressure, both for club and country, but there will be more of it on the way when he returns to Spain. Things went swimmingly for him at the Santiago Bernabeu this season, but should he fall on harder times, the criticism will not take long to head towards Los Blancos either.