Jude Bellingham continued his Birmingham homecoming on Saturday by attending a cricket match at Edgbaston, one day after receiving a hero’s welcome at his former football club Birmingham City.
The Real Madrid midfielder purchased a 1.2 per cent stake in The Hundred franchise Birmingham Phoenix earlier this year. Bellingham has previously spoken about his love for the sport, saying he and his brother Jobe used to scrap when playing cricket growing up and that it is now his favourite thing to watch outside football.
Bellingham watched Phoenix win their opening women’s competition match in dramatic fashion, defeating Welsh Fire with just one ball remaining. He also presented captain Donovan Ferreira with the coin for the toss ahead of the men’s match, though Phoenix lost that game to Welsh Fire. England’s newly confirmed Test captain Joe Root guided the visitors to victory with four balls remaining.
Upon announcing his involvement with the franchise, Bellingham said he feels he owes the city something and that investing in the club felt like a good way to repay that debt.
Hero’s welcome at St Andrew’s
The night before, Bellingham was welcomed back to Birmingham City as the club hosted Barcelona in a pre-season friendly at St Andrew’s. Birmingham won 3-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in normal time.
Bellingham, who began his career at Birmingham before joining Borussia Dortmund in 2020 and Real Madrid in 2023, was unveiled to supporters at the start of the match. Fans chanted his name and sang that he is one of their own.
August Priske Flyger and John Solis scored for Birmingham, while Hamza Abdelkarim netted twice for Barcelona. Goalkeeper James Beadle saved penalties from Roony Bardghji and Brian Farinas in the shootout, and Jordi Pesquer hit the crossbar, handing Birmingham a 3-2 win on spot-kicks.
Bellingham donned his retired No 22 Birmingham shirt during the match, having arrived in a white T-shirt. Birmingham have permanently kept that number out of circulation since he left the club.
Bellingham made his senior debut for Birmingham in the 2019-20 season at 16 years and 36 days old, becoming the youngest first-team player in the club’s history. He made 41 appearances that campaign before joining Dortmund for a fee of £25 million. He has not yet returned to Madrid for pre-season, having played a role for England at the World Cup this summer under new manager Jose Mourinho.
