Roy Keane, the outspoken former Manchester United captain turned Sky Sports analyst, has hailed Jude Bellingham as a potential future legend of the game. The 23‑year‑old, who plies his trade for Real Madrid and the England national side, delivered a masterclass in Rijeka when the Three Lions thrashed Croatia 7‑0 in the Nations League. In that match Bellingham found the back of the net once and supplied three assists, underscoring why many observers now view him as a budding all‑time great.
Bellingham’s rise has been meteoric. He was England’s standout performer at the most recent World Cup, and under Thomas Tuchel’s stewardship he has become the focal point of a side that now boasts a lethal attacking quartet.
Since the start of the tournament, the midfielder has been directly involved in 13 goals across 11 games – a ratio that would be enviable for any seasoned veteran. Keane, speaking on ITV after the Croatia fixture, described Bellingham’s display as "a complete performance" and stressed that the young Englishman has evolved into "a huge leader for England". "There’s still a lot more to come from Jude," Keane asserted. "He can go on to become one of the greatest players of all time.
His attitude for England recently… I have been praising him for being fantastic in possession, but what he is doing out of possession lifts all these players. If you have a player who is that good in your team, who is amazing in possession and is playing for Real Madrid and doing brilliant things, but his work rate off the ball, that will inspire all the other players." Keane went on to compare England’s dominance over the 14th‑ranked Croatians to a "Gibraltar‑type of team", emphasizing the gulf in quality. He summed up the performance as "everything you would want – a complete performance". Those sentiments were echoed by England’s own Bukayo Saka, who scored twice in the match.
Saka told ITV: "It was an amazing night for us. We played with high energy and spirit and punished them tonight. He [Bellingham] was amazing tonight, to be fair. He deserved player of the year and he probably deserves man of the match tonight as well.
He was special. Happy to play with him and happy to have him in the England team." Tuchel, too, praised Bellingham’s progression.
When asked whether the midfielder had taken a step up, the German manager replied, "Yes, at the moment it seems like that and you always need to. The level that you showed last week is never enough in the next week, that's just the nature of football. We adjusted some things, gave the players a lot of responsibility and they are a group to be trusted. It was impressive.
It was the first time that this group played like this together again and they were very good and the translation from the last two matches, from the training sessions and the meetings into this match was on the highest level." Tuchel’s tactical blueprint has produced a formidable front four: Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon. All four found the net against Croatia, a testament to the fluidity and interchangeability that Tuchel has cultivated. Captain Kane explained the system on ITV: "There’s freedom. All four of us are good players, we can play in the 10 pocket, Ant can play as a No 9, B can come in as a No 10, Jude can play as a No 9, I can play as a midfielder.
It’s so hard for the opposition to pick it up. The bottom line is if you lose the ball, we’re all smart enough and good enough to cover in midfield or defence.
That’s the way we want to play. For them it was so hard to pick a man and press." Tuchel added that the front line’s success also stems from the support of the full‑backs and the high‑level movements behind them: "The support from the full‑backs, of course, and then the movements through the last line were on the highest level today. They get better and better. That’s why I didn’t want to change so much from match to match, to get the fluidity going and to get the movements going and to get the automatisms right within the front four but they are very good together at the moment.
They enjoy playing together and the work rate is on a high level and the counter‑press is on a high level so these are complete performances. The full‑backs keep on pushing and supporting and the midfielders keep on pushing and supporting, so it’s always a team effort, but the front four look very dangerous at the moment." Rob Dorsett of Sky Sports News captured the spectacle in his post‑match report: "England sank Croatia without a trace on the Adriatic coast, with the Good Ship Tuchel now full steam ahead after the World Cup supporter mutiny. No one could have predicted a performance of this utter dominance against the team ranked 14 in the world.
England cut through a woeful Croatia midfield and defence at will, like a red‑hot knife carving through softened butter, and Tuchel’s front men had a field day. Two goals for Captain Kane with an assist to boot. Two goals for Saka, which will have been a timely confidence boost for the Arsenal man. There was a goal and a hat‑trick of assists for the irrepressible Jude Bellingham, alongside a goal and an assist for the equally magnificent Anthony Gordon.
Croatia were simply blown away, and England could have won by more. When England are rampaging all over the pitch like this, winning back possession when they have no right to do so, passing forward at every opportunity and finishing ruthlessly, there is no better team in world football to watch. Seven‑nil in Rijeka does not flatter them. This was a statement victory, and a marker of what they are capable of." The consensus among pundits, teammates and the manager is clear: Jude Bellingham is not only the engine of England’s current success, but also a player whose ceiling may be among the highest ever reached in the sport.
His blend of technical brilliance, tactical intelligence, relentless work‑rate and leadership qualities suggest that, if he continues on this trajectory, he could indeed join the pantheon of football’s greatest icons.