Jude Bellingham Broke England’s World Cup Scoring Record This Summer and Has Now Been Named Player of the Year for the Second Year Running

• Jude Bellingham has been voted England men’s player of the year for the second year in a row, an honour decided by supporters rather than a panel.
• Bellingham scored seven goals at the 2026 World Cup, a new record for the most goals by an Englishman at a single tournament.
• England lost their semi-final to Argentina but beat France 6-4 in the third-place match for their best finish on foreign soil.

How a Painful Semi-Final Exit Still Ended in Personal Triumph

Jude Bellingham picked up an award this week that fans, not a panel of judges, decided he deserved for the second summer running. Months earlier he had watched Argentina celebrate a semi-final win over England, one of the harder nights of his career. The two moments now sit next to each other: a tournament that ended in disappointment, and an individual prize that shows how much he carried his country through it.

The Real Madrid midfielder was named England men’s player of the year on Friday, an award voted for by supporters. It recognises a World Cup in which Bellingham scored seven goals, the most by an Englishman at a single tournament, and helped drive Thomas Tuchel’s side to their best finish on foreign soil.

“It feels great,” Bellingham said of the award. “Obviously, a huge honour to be recognised by the fans again. It’s not something you think about when you play for your country, but it’s obviously a beautiful little addition to the great summer we had.”

A Record Built on Two Doubles

Bellingham’s seven goals arrived across a run that took England to a third-place finish, their best result away from home. He scored a brace in the round of 16, a wild 3-2 win over Mexico that swung more than once before England held on. He scored twice more in the quarter-final against Norway, a result that sent England into the last four.

England’s run stopped there. Argentina beat them in the semi-final, a defeat Harry Kane later called the most painful moment of his England career. There was no trophy at the end of the tournament for Tuchel’s players, only a third-place play-off against France, which England won 6-4 to close out the summer with their best finish on foreign soil.

Tuchel Says Bellingham “Thrives Under Pressure”

Tuchel praised his midfielder after the award was announced. “I think he was one of the players of the tournament, not only for us but for the whole tournament,” the England head coach said. “He lived up to his full potential; you could just see what a competitor and what a machine he is.

“He just thrives under pressure, he just loves these moments, he loves these stages and it brings out the very best in him.”

The praise reflects a shift in how Bellingham is talked about inside the England camp. A year after his first player of the year award, he has repeated the feat, a back-to-back honour that puts him alongside the biggest names in the squad in the eyes of the supporters who vote for it.

What Comes Next for Bellingham and England

England now turn to the Nations League, starting with a heavyweight opener against world champions Spain at Wembley. Croatia and Czechia follow, home and away, in the group fixtures that will shape England’s campaign through the rest of the year.

Bellingham arrives at that fixture list off the back of the individual honour and the tournament form to match it. His club season at Real Madrid, where he now lines up alongside England teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold, has added to the sense that his influence over both club and country keeps growing.

Bellingham’s award lands in a period when England’s squad is being reshaped around the identity Tuchel wants to build for the Nations League and the campaign that follows it. Spain arrive at Wembley as reigning world and European champions, giving Tuchel’s rebuilt group an early measure of where they stand against the best team in the international game.

For Bellingham personally, the award marks how far his influence over this England team has grown since his debut. He has now been voted the squad’s outstanding player in back-to-back seasons, spanning a World Cup summer in which the team went further than recent tournaments, only to fall at the same stage, the semi-final, that has defined England’s recent tournament history.

A Vote That Tells Its Own Story

There was no trophy for England in North America this summer, and Bellingham has been open about how much the Argentina defeat hurt. But the player of the year award, voted for by the fans who watched every minute of that campaign, tells its own story. Two doubles, a scoring record and a third-place finish were enough to convince supporters that Bellingham was the player who made the biggest difference when it counted.

He returns to Wembley on Saturday to begin the Nations League campaign, with Spain first up and the same fanbase that just voted for him watching to see if he can carry England again.