Birmingham have retired Jude Bellingham's 22 shirt...

bevoboro said:
It still does look ridiculous!

I mean if Jude Bellingham becomes Real Madrid's most celebrated player in their history up there with Di Stefano and Puskas, wins everything there is to win, plays 600 games and manages them to glory, then Real Madrid might justifiably consider retiring his shirt on that basis.

The club where he was as a 16yo in the English second tier, where he played less than 100 times before being sold retiring his shirt seems very small time.
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Oh I agree. I think of it more as an incredibly bold show of faith / appreciation in a young talent who had an opportunity to go on and become world class, and to be fair it’s paid off when the odds of everything working out are highly unlikely. How many young players’ careers go Nathan Porritt-shaped?

They could have ended up looking very embarrassed by this, rather than just slightly embarrassed because it’s a bit much 😁
 
bevoboro said:
It still does look ridiculous!

I mean if Jude Bellingham becomes Real Madrid's most celebrated player in their history up there with Di Stefano and Puskas, wins everything there is to win, plays 600 games and manages them to glory, then Real Madrid might justifiably consider retiring his shirt on that basis.

The club where he was as a 16yo in the English second tier, where he played less than 100 games before being sold retiring his shirt however, seems very small time in my opinion.

I mean Hayden Hackney could be anything, the future looks incredibly bright for him and if he continues progressing he could go on to be a top midfielder and play Champions League football for a good side, maybe play for England too! If Boro retired his shirt I'd be embarrassed and wonder what the game was coming to!
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I know what a small minded decision, I mean fancy retiring a shirt of a local lad and Birmingham fan, who most pundits agree could be the winner of the ballon d’or for the the next 5 years, could win the euros with England, probably will captain England for the next 10’years, probably will win countless trophies with Real Madrid and might lead England to their first world cup 60 years.

Worlds gone mad 🤭
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
I know what a small minded decision, I mean fancy retiring a shirt of a local lad and Birmingham fan, who most pundits agree could be the winner of the ballon d’or for the the next 5 years, could win the euros with England, probably will captain England for the next 10’years, probably will win countless trophies with Real Madrid and might lead England to their first world cup 60 years.

Worlds gone mad 🤭
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..and if he goes on to all of that, it'll still be an embarrassment.
 
Humpty said:
..and if he goes on to all of that, it'll still be an embarrassment.
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Yep again you’re right. I mean fancy having the shirt and number of the worlds best player to sell. When with hindsight they could have given it to Kevin Long
 
I think everyone in the game knew he was going to be a bit special didn't they? It's not like Birmingham have spookily predicted it out of nothing, pretty much every club in Europe was interested in him when he left for Dortmund.

The fact remains retiring the shirt of a player who achieved the square root of **** all for your club is ridiculous, regardless of how good he goes onto be or what he achieves elsewhere.
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
Yep again you’re right. I mean fancy having the shirt and number of the worlds best player to sell. When with hindsight they could have given it to Kevin Long
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Why does giving the same number shirt to Kevin Long the next season stop you from doing that?
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
I know what a small minded decision, I mean fancy retiring a shirt of a local lad and Birmingham fan, who most pundits agree could be the winner of the ballon d’or for the the next 5 years, could win the euros with England, probably will captain England for the next 10’years, probably will win countless trophies with Real Madrid and might lead England to their first world cup 60 years.

Worlds gone mad 🤭
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Yes he could do all of that but ultimately if he does he will do that for other clubs and not for brum.

If he achieves all of the above will he go down as a birmingham hero or a real madrid and england legend?
 
Didn't they retire it as a mark of respect, to acknowledge that he signed a new contract just before he left? Thereby earning them millions in a transfer fee they wouldn't have got if he had left while on his schoolboy contract.
 
festa5 said:
I think everyone in the game knew he was going to be a bit special didn't they? It's not like Birmingham have spookily predicted it out of nothing, pretty much every club in Europe was interested in him when he left for Dortmund.

The fact remains retiring the shirt of a player who achieved the square root of **** all for your club is ridiculous, regardless of how good he goes onto be or what he achieves elsewhere.
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I think the point is, there’s a bit special then there’s whatever the hell it is that Jude Bellingham is doing now. Dominating the midfield whilst smashing goalscoring records at the biggest club in the world aged 20.

Raheem Sterling was absolutely fantastic at 17. I wouldn’t rush to retire his shirt.

Most don’t achieve their potential like that - in fact, thinking of English wonderkids in my lifetime, Gazza got destroyed by injuries and his own problems, Owen was sensational but destroyed by the toon and injuries, Rooney broke every record going but probably didn’t hit the heights he could have. Bellingham’s next, and so far he’s killing it.
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
A lot of people saying they'd never heard of him before today must have had their head in the sands for the past 4 months...

He's been in the news non-stop for being linked with Dortumund/Man United... touted as the next Jadon Sancho.

That being said, 4 goals is hardly anything to shout about really.
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Well, he's certainly surpassed Jadon Sancho 😅
 
Havent read through the full thread but I believe part of the number retirement was due to the fee they received from Dortmund.
 
What exactly did they have to lose by doing this?

I guess the intention was to create an iconic brand and they'll be able to sell Bellingham 22 shirts for decades to come.
If his career flopped, well, they can't use the number 22 (until they forget about it). Would anyone actually notice if any of our opponents didn't have a 22 in their squad?

I wonder if Sunderland will try it with his brother?
 
Sergio said:
Havent read through the full thread but I believe part of the number retirement was due to the fee they received from Dortmund.
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www.birminghammail.co.uk

Why Blues retired Jude Bellingham's number 22 shirt

Birmingham City retired the No.22 shirt in honour of Jude Bellingham when he moved to Borussia Dortmund and the 17-year-old is set to make his England debut tonight
www.birminghammail.co.uk www.birminghammail.co.uk

You'd have thought they'd have mentioned that in the announcement at the time, if that was the reason.

It was public knowledge that he'd agreed a senior contract before the transfer.
 
Seems a random thing for the club to do, but maybe it was the player that requested it as a condition when signing new contract. Was said when he left Germany that he has a massive ego.
 
Frozen Horse said:
What exactly did they have to lose by doing this?

I guess the intention was to create an iconic brand and they'll be able to sell Bellingham 22 shirts for decades to come.
If his career flopped, well, they can't use the number 22 (until they forget about it). Would anyone actually notice if any of our opponents didn't have a 22 in their squad?

I wonder if Sunderland will try it with his brother?
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Maybe Bellingham himself was trying to create a brand, similar to Ronaldo7.

The story goes that he wanted to be a No 10 as a junior but his coach said he should be 22 because he can do it all - numbers 4, 8 or 10.

So he was No. 22 at Birmingham, asked for 22 at Dortmund and his England WC number was 22.
Unfortunately for Jude, Rudiger already had the 22 shirt at Real Madrid.
 
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