Paul Merson: Jude Bellingham’s X-Factor Can End England’s 60-Year World Cup Wait

Paul Merson has a phrase he keeps returning to when he talks about Jude Bellingham. Teams win leagues, he says. X-factor wins tournaments. And after watching the Real Madrid midfielder drag England into a World Cup semi-final for the fourth time in history, the Sky Sports pundit is convinced England have found the player who can end a 60-year wait for the trophy.

“Teams win leagues. X-factor wins tournaments,” Merson said. “We have an X-factor player in Jude Bellingham, and also Harry Kane. We have X-factor in abundance with those two. When you have players like that, you always have a chance of winning tournaments.”

Bellingham scored twice as England beat Norway 2-1 after extra time in Miami on Saturday, equalising in first-half stoppage time before poaching the winner. The pair of goals put him level with Kane on six for the tournament and set up a semi-final meeting with Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Matching a mark last set by Maradona

The scale of what Bellingham has produced across the knockout rounds is hard to ignore. Diego Maradona was the last player to score twice in consecutive knockout-stage World Cup matches, doing so in 1986. Bellingham matched that feat this week, coming five days after his double against Mexico in the last 16.

Nine of Bellingham’s 12 England goals have come at major tournaments, and his six this summer put him alongside Gary Lineker (1986) and Kane (2018 and now 2026) as the only England players to reach at least five goals at a single World Cup.

Merson said Kane’s quieter afternoon against Norway only sharpened the contrast with Bellingham’s impact. “It wasn’t Kane’s best day against Norway but on this occasion, Bellingham stepped up. He’s an absolute superstar,” Merson said. “You’d have to say he’s well on the way to being an England great. He has 50 caps already at 23. He always turns up for England, especially at the big tournaments. He’s a big game player and also, he’s a Real Madrid player. He’s a proper, proper footballer. You see a lot of good players but there are levels. He is moving up the levels very, very quickly to get near the top players.”

Tuchel’s blunt verdict

England’s win did not come easily. Andreas Schjelderup put Norway ahead after 36 minutes and Thomas Tuchel’s side needed the full 120 minutes to get past a side appearing in their first ever World Cup quarter-final. Tuchel made no attempt to hide his frustration with the performance afterwards, telling ITV: “We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today. The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four. It’s amazing. I’m not happy with the performance.”

Merson said the heat in Florida had to be factored into any judgement of the display. “I don’t think people understand how hot it is over in America and the difficulty that brings. It’s boiling hot over there. I’ve been to Orlando on holiday and it’s bad enough just sitting around the pool. To play football in that heat for that long, extra-time too, fair play to the players. It’s an amazing effort from both sets of players,” he said. “I can see why Thomas Tuchel wasn’t very happy in his interview after the game. He should have been unhappy because players were making bad mistakes.”

Merson defended the manager’s right to say so publicly. “Tuchel is an elite manager. That’s why England brought him in. He’s not silly. He knows that if England play like that, not so much against Argentina, but against France or Spain, we’d get blown away. He knows that and that is why he said what he said after beating Norway,” Merson said.

Bellingham was not interested in dwelling on his manager’s assessment when he was asked about it afterwards. “Yeah, well. Whatever. Whatever,” he said. “It’s difficult out there. It’s a tough shift. All the players are putting in a tough shift. So my thoughts and appreciation go to the players who put in a good shift out there.”

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville enjoyed the exchange between manager and player. “I love both interviews,” he told ITV. “Thomas Tuchel’s was fantastic. Jude Bellingham’s response was absolutely brilliant. What you’ve seen in those two interviews are massive egos, world-class players and managers. You have to be exceptional to do what those two have done. What we’ve seen there is very good for England.”

The Rice question

One player Merson wants to see fitter and sharper before Wednesday is Declan Rice, who struggled to influence the game against Norway. “England need a fully fit Declan Rice back and firing,” Merson said. “It’s a testament to how good our squad is the amount of times Tuchel changed things up against Norway. It’s a very strong squad. But Declan has to be fit. He didn’t look right against Norway. He puts the ball on a sixpence from a corner for Arsenal. He couldn’t even beat the first man. However, Rice has to play. Hopefully it was just illness affecting him. We need our best players on the pitch. If it isn’t working, we have the players on the bench to change things. We are probably the only nation who have four or five subs that can come on and not really weaken the side. The squad is at a top level and that gives us a big advantage.”

Debate over Bellingham’s place in the side feels a long way off now. He was left out of an England squad as recently as October, and there were questions before the tournament over whether Morgan Rogers might be preferred to him. Those conversations have been settled by two braces in successive knockout rounds, 111 minutes played against Norway alone, and more shots, duels won and fouls won than anyone else on the pitch in Miami.

An opponent that does not like England

England’s semi-final opponents arrive with a reputation of their own. Argentina beat Switzerland 3-1 after extra time in Kansas City to set up the meeting, and Sky Sports pundit Hayley McQueen said the fixture always carries an edge whatever the current squads look like. “I remember France ’98 when we lost to them on penalties in the last 16,” she said. “The coaches were right next each other in the car park and I will never forget the Argentina players with their shirts off, banging the windows. It wasn’t classy and that is why there will always be an added something in the game.”

McQueen said England’s route to the trophy would only get harder from here. “I have no problem with us having to play Argentina. I can see us beating them, even with the way we are playing at the moment, which isn’t perfect. My only concern is if we get through Argentina. We won’t be able to play like we are playing and beat France or Spain,” she said. “England are good enough to win the World Cup. They have players good enough to win the World Cup. But they will have to be better. They will have to get the simple things right. I personally didn’t think I’d see England win a World Cup in my lifetime, but we are getting closer and closer.”

Former England striker Gary Lineker went further still on the scale of what Bellingham is building. “I would go as far as to say I think there’s a chance that I think he could well be, or end up being, England’s greatest ever footballer. And that is a big shout,” Lineker told The Rest Is Football on Netflix. “We’ve had some really great players. Some of them have not necessarily done it for their country, others have. Go back to people like Bobby Charlton obviously, I would say would have to be up there. You would put Harry Kane in that bracket and there are other players as well, but I think at this age, to be doing what he’s doing and to grabbing England by the scruff and getting them over the line, that is superstar.”

Merson said England’s position in the draw was exactly where a squad of their ranking should expect to be. “We are number four in the world and we have got to a semi-final. That is where we should be. At Wimbledon, you expect the top four seeds to get to the last four. If they don’t, they have failed. So, job one we’ve done. We are in the last four. After that, if we can get to the final we have exceeded expectation. That’s the way I think we should look at it,” he said.

What comes next

England’s only World Cup final appearance remains their title-winning run in 1966. Wednesday’s meeting with Argentina in Atlanta is the first competitive fixture between the two nations in 24 years, and kick-off is at 8pm UK time, with the winner facing either France or Spain in the final on 19 July.

Merson’s view is that England’s route to a first final in six decades now runs through a player capable of deciding matches on his own. Two knockout rounds, two Bellingham braces, and one win away from a shot at the trophy that has eluded England for 60 years.