Jude Bellingham has been known for being fairly flexible between sports, not just since the 2-1 win with Borussia Dortmund at Besiktas Istanbul on Wednesday evening.

His mother Denise once said that the Filius refused to play any form of ball game in the early years of his life, but after he started playing, he was a little star a short time later.

When some of his pals on the school's cricket team were having fun, Bellingham was banned from participating because he had no idea about the sport, and he practiced intensely during the summer break that followed.

In the following season he promptly reached the national finals with his school as one of the strongest players.

And now he has succeeded in the football Champions League with the stylistic devices of a basketball player.

In any case, the 18-year-old Englishman said after the success: “It was a bit like basketball.

Every attack was followed by a counterattack. ”Bellingham got along well with this type of game.

A difficult task mastered

He scored the 0: 1 himself (20th minute), prepared the second goal with a dribble and a precise pass to Erling Haaland (45th), and Bellingham was omnipresent in other respects.

He straddled, led duels, bridged spaces with the ball at his feet.

"He's unbelievable, he's three years younger than me, it's crazy," said Haaland, who has outshone all other Dortmunders with his many goals and his impressive style of play in the past few months.

Now Bellingham is on the way to attaining a similar special status.

Because this professional is not just a good footballer, the professional who grew up in a suburb of the working-class city of Birmingham plays with the emotions that are particularly easy to spark in Dortmund.

Even during his first appearances as a 16-year-old talent at Birmingham City in the English second division, he regularly waved his arms to heat the crowd. And the way he plays has a similar effect. "That was one of the reasons we wanted to sign him," said sports director Michael Zorc, "because he is good for us with his emotionality, but also fits in with BVB and the Ruhr area."

So it is no coincidence that Bellingham, for whom Borussia 2020 transferred an impressive 23 million euros to Birmingham City, played his best Champions League game to date in what is said to be the loudest stadium in the world.

The whole team was good.

"We mastered a difficult task, had difficult phases and still deserved to win," said Marco Rose, who did not like to go into individual players after that evening.

Some time ago, however, coach Rose described that Bellingham as "inquisitive, incredibly ambitious, almost irascible".

Nevertheless, he hardly ever gets stupid fouls or ball losses that lead to dangerous counter-attacks.

Footballers who play so emotionally as teenagers and at the same time exude the maturity of a thirty-year-old have not often been at this level.