Birmingham City have a seriously exciting emerging wonderkid - Jude Bellingham 2.0? | OneFootball

Blues could potentially make even more millions through Alfie Smith's development

Birmingham City have become one of the most ambitious clubs in English football through the ownership of Knighthead Capital Management, and even though the 2025/26 season has been slightly underwhelming, their long-term future certainly remains exciting.

Tom Wagner has ploughed millions of pounds into Blues ever since his initial takeover back in July 2023, even though on the pitch, they had to take a step back to make some great strides forward.

A period of major stagnation and a lack of investment from previous ownership groups culminated in Birmingham's relegation to League One in 2024, having previously spent many seasons battling against the drop under several managers and head coaches.

Limited financial resources also meant there was an even greater onus on the club to promote from within, which allowed the likes of Jude and Jobe Bellingham to source their initial pathway towards first-team football, even in tough circumstances for Blues as a whole.

The Bellingham family have, as a result, become synonymous with Birmingham as a club and as a city within the past decade, particularly through Jude, who has become a worldwide sensation through his exploits with Real Madrid and the England national team.

However, whilst there has been a sense of disappointment that current Blues boss, Chris Davies, hasn't given much access to players from Blues' academy, who are currently developing at the Knighthead Performance Centre at Wast Hills, he, or whoever may be in charge long-term may have to offer the same early breakthrough to young goalkeeper, Alfie Smith.

Jude Bellingham has been an inspirational figure to the likes of Alfie Smith at Birmingham City

Back in 2019, Bellingham was immediately fast-tracked from Birmingham's academy into the first-team setup under Pep Clotet, who had taken over from Garry Monk in pre-season.

The Spaniard would hand the box-to-box midfielder his debut at just 16 years and 38 days of age in an EFL Cup tie against Portsmouth at Fratton Park, making him the club's youngest-ever player, before his winning goal in a 2-1 success over Stoke City saw him trump another of Trevor Francis' long-standing records to become Blues' youngest-ever goalscorer.

Indeed, Bellingham played just 44 times for his local side, scoring four times, before initially signing for Borussia Dortmund in July 2020 for £25m, and then going on to shine for Real Madrid and England in countless matches, winning several individual awards in the process.

The midfield ace still speaks extremely highly of his boyhood club, though, and has been used in promotional videos for Blues' upcoming 62,000-seater Powerhouse stadium, some six years after the club, despite mass criticism, retired his shirt number as a way of inspiring the next generation of academy players to make the grade at St. Andrew's.

Alfie Smith will hope to make the grade at Birmingham City after receiving plenty of hype

The aforementioned Smith has received similar attention to that of Bellingham through his own progress in Blues' youth setup, which in April 2025, saw him become the youngest player to feature for the club's Under-18s since the England star.

The 15-year-old has since progressed into the England Under-16s ranks, and has become the subject of interest from clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal as a result of his well-documented upward trajectory at such a young age.

Blues, meanwhile, are desperate to retain Smith's services in the long run in the hope he can eventually become a first-choice shot-stopper in the coming years, albeit he will just be 19 years of age by the time the club moves into the Powerhouse stadium.

It has been claimed that David Seaman and Ben Foster are two goalkeepers which Smith models his game on, whilst one of the stands at St. Andrew's is also named after a legendary homegrown goalkeeper who featured over 700 times for his hometown club, as well as 23 times for the Three Lions - Gil Merrick, which will provide further inspiration.

The goalkeeping position has been somewhat of an issue for Birmingham this season in the first-team fold, with Ryan Allsop initially displaced by Brighton loanee and England youth international, James Beadle, who has become the subject of split opinions amongst the fanbase.

However, they will hope to be cheering one of their own on in the years to come, who could, in some way, make Blues a lot of money, emulating the success of Bellingham.