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Jude Bellingham explains hand gesture and slams England fans for talking ‘rubbish’

Jude Bellingham clarifies that much talked about hand gesture and slams England fans for talking ‘rubbish’ about the team.

The goalscorer, who on Saturday turned 21 year old, said took issue with the ‘pile on’ from the Three Lions fanbase towards players after their 2-1 win over Slovakia after extra time.

England made it through to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 in a dramatic end no one saw coming on Sunday evening.

Bellingham scored an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage-time with an overhead kick, and Kane made it 2-1 just minutes into extra time.

He made a gesture with his hand after scoring, but has claimed it was: “An inside joke gesture towards some close friends who were at the game. Nothing but respect for how that Slovakia team played tonight.”

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He spoke in his post-match press conference, telling fans to stop ‘piling on’ the players.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” he said.

“Playing for England is an enjoyable feeling but it’s also a lot of pressure. You hear people talk a lot of rubbish. It’s nice when you can deliver and give them a little bit back.

“It’s very difficult when you talk in press conferences and interviews to talk as openly as footballers want to because they’re always judged. For me, football, being on the pitch, scoring goals and celebrating is my release.

“Maybe it was a message to a few people. I was very happy at the end, lots of adrenaline.

“You know what I mean by the rubbish. Playing for England should be the most proud moment of your career but often it’s quite difficult.

“There’s a really high intense pressure. The fans expect a lot from us regardless of what happened in recent tournaments years and years ago.

“People talk a lot. You do have to take it personally a little bit. We work so hard at this game.

“We come in every day, we work hard to put on a performance for the fans, sometimes it doesn’t go well and sometimes it feels like there’s a a bit of a pile on, it’s not nice to hear.

“But you can always use it and for moments like that, it’s nice to throw it back to some people.”

SEE MORE: Declan Rice fumes after being shoved by Slovakia manager in bust-up at full time

On his goal, he said: “It’s got to be up there, hasn’t it?

“There’s a few nice ones, goals that mean a lot to me personally like my first goals for Birmingham, Dortmund, Madrid. But this was a feeling like no other.

“In international football, knock-out football, it’s the worst feeling when you are no more than 30 seconds from going home and having to listen to all the rubbish. You feel like you’ve let a nation of people down and 30 seconds later, with one kick of the ball, everything can change.

“It’s 20 or 30 seconds until we’re out of the European Championship. It’s hard to deny that it’s one of the most important moments of my career so far. It’s still a long tournament and it is only really very important if we go on to win the cup. So we’ll decide in the next two weeks how important it is.”

Pushed on what he meant by “­rubbish” ­Bellingham said: “You know what I mean by the rubbish.

“Playing for England should be the most proud moment of your career but often it’s quite difficult. There’s a really high intense pressure. The fans expect a lot from us regardless of what happened in recent tournaments years and years ago.

“People talk a lot. You do have to take it personally a little bit. We work so hard at this game. We come in every day, we work hard to put on a performance for the fans, sometimes it doesn’t go well and sometimes it feels like there’s a bit of a pile on, it’s not nice to hear.

“But you can always use it and for moments like that, it’s nice to throw it back to some people.”

Southgate smiled after being told about Bellingham’s comments, and said: “I understand his world better than most people. His world is different to pretty much any other 21‑year‑old in the world. He is still a young man and is going to react to things as young people can, but he provides moments where he can change games.”

Kane also praised ­Bellingham post-match: “That’s the desire from the boys and staff and everyone involved. We kept going. We put a long throw in a couple of days ago and we said we might need it. Then Jude does what Jude does – it was an ­unbelievable goal. It’s one of the best in our ­country’s history.”

Southgate, who also added that he knows how much his side have to improve when they take on Switzerland, was targeted with some chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” at one point.

Fans urged for him to make subs earlier in the game than when he did. He was rewarded for bringing on Ivan Toney in the fourth minute of added time after Toney went on to help set up Kane’s goal, prompting ­Southgate to talk about England ­winning the 1966 World Cup.

“I knew Ivan Toney had the hump with me for putting him on but I said to him: ‘This could be the moment.’ We showed the players a presentation about 1966 and how Geoff Hurst hadn’t played until the quarter-final, the difficult route the team had. The players who came into the team have been ready and trained well.

“I could just tell from his [Toney’s] face, and I could understand it; I am putting him on with a minute to go, any player could think: ‘I have been sat for the tournament and you have not used me.’ But I said there could be one moment and I think his presence will have unsettled them a bit and he had a very clever bit of play for the ­second goal. I think he has just about ­forgiven me now. In terms of ’66, we just wanted to highlight that ­tour­naments take you in strange places and ­difficult routes.”

This is what fans are saying as Jude Bellingham explains that much talked about hand gesture and slams some England fans for talking ‘rubbish’…

@CFCDaily: Exact reason why England fans aren’t as buzzing for tournament football compared to the past. Get outplayed for large parts of the game, go 80+ min without a shot on target. Then the arrogance comes out. It’s like the humbling is needed.

@ConnCFC: England performing horribly but we can’t say it cos it might hurt players earning millions a month feelings.

@theavfcfaithful: Play well then

@ArgyleMemes: Yeah that performance has alleviated any doubts we had. 😂😂😂

@Cheggles29: Oh dear, it’s the fans’ fault they’re massively underperforming.

@WanderingDutchX: Your job is to play football. If you don’t do your job well you will get criticised. What do you think happens when we don’t do our jobs well Jude?… Tone deaf response by a young millionaire.

@shutter_lux: ‘Sometimes’ it doesn’t go well, or everytime? That’s the issue, isn’t it. And criticism is not a ‘pile-on’

@ToonMouthTyne: Fans are allowed to voice their opinion when things aren’t going well and performances are under par…. and my God, is that the case with England at present. Dress it up how you want but we are being served up incoherent garbage at present and it shows no signs of changing soon.

@bazza080808: We were shit though 🤷‍♂️

@theposhfan: Love Jude but can’t agree. The kid saved us tonight but for the previous 94 minutes he was awful, as were the other 10 players. He’s just saved his managers job.

@dodds_brett: No one is piling on the players, they are piling on a manager who doesn’t have a clue how to set a team up or makes the changes needed. We flooked that win let’s not sugar coat it

@tommywalkerco: We played bad, but TWO moments with Englands TWO shots on target changed the game. Objectively, it’s not a surprise but we need to play better against the Swiss or they will destroy us.

@fewpints: Yeah… the fans expect you to beat Slovakia comfortably. Great observation

@HarryWright27: I absolutely love this bloke. He has dug us out of another hole tonight and saved us from a huge embarrassment. But this is so far off it. It’s not a “pile-on”, it’s all of you being rightly criticised for serving up four diabolical performances that will catch up with you soon.

@joebutters: Fuck off mate, this was an Iceland level shit performance. Pulled a piece of magic out in the 95th minute and thinks that undoes it all. This siege mentality against their own fans is a ridiculous approach to the tournament when they’re playing so badly.

@ReeceDSport: We pile it on because you play absolutely awfully in all of our games. As was todays. You’ve thrown nothing back Get your ego in check

@Gidge11: Throw it back? He’s a cheeky cunt. Been wank all tournament. Struggled against anyone and everyone. The fuck does he think he is? The stick they have received has been 100% deserved.

@WHUFCallum_: Can’t they all just do the talking on the pitch instead of keep doing interviews like this?

@HJT96_: Great goal but I’d prefer it if a player came out and said it for what it was. A rank bad performance (pretty much 5 in a row now inc Iceland) and 30 seconds from a humiliating defeat. They need to play better

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