Jude Bellingham: Real Madrid midfielder named England player of the year | OneFootball

22-year-old is a first-time winner of the award

Jude Bellingham has been named England player of the year for the 2024-25 season.

Bellingham is a first-time winner of the award and has been recognised for moments such as scoring against Greece at Wembley in the Nations League last October and being named man of the match in the 5-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in the same campaign, which also happened to be Lee Carsley’s final match as caretaker manager.

Bellingham also registered assists against Ireland and against Albania in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win in March in Thomas Tuchel’s first match in charge of the Three Lions.

The Real Madrid man is yet to play for England this season but is in contention to be named in Friday’s squad for the October games against Wales and Latvia. He missed out last month as he underwent recovery following planned surgery on a shoulder injury.

Bellingham is the first winner of the England player of the year award to come from a non-English club since midfielder Owen Hargreaves took the award while plying his trade for Bayern Munich in 2006.

The award, which began in 2003, has been won most often by Wayne Rooney, on four occasions, in 2008, 2009, 2014 and 2015.

Cole Palmer was the winner last year, breaking up a two-year reign by the Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka.

England are next in action on October 9 when they host neighbours Wales in a friendly, before a trip to Riga to take on Latvia in a World Cup qualifier five days later.