Jude Bellingham wore the number 22 shirt during his time at Birmingham and Dortmund, GOAL will reveal the reasons behind the young England star’s decision.

Bellingham has been hailed as one of the best young talents in world football. Liverpool and Real Madrid, among other clubs, were in contention for the 20-year-old’s signature during the summer, and Los Blancos were successful in signing the midfielder.

While the Englishman is famous for his success on the field, his shirt number has attracted the attention of fans. Bellingham has worn the number 22 shirt since emerging at Birmingham City. The English club even retired the number 22 shirt after the midfielder moved to Dortmund, even though he only appeared 44 times here.

Why does Bellingham wear number 22?

The story behind Bellingham’s unique shirt number choice begins in his early days at Birmingham City. In his early years, the club told him he didn’t need to limit himself to just one role – and that he could be a No. 4 (defensive midfielder), No. 8 (all-round midfielder) and number 10 (attacking midfielder), and plays in each position to the same extent.

Mike Dodds, Birmingham City’s head of development, spoke to talkSPORT to explain why he chose his shirt number. “I really remember his first training session when he was seven years old,” Dodds told talkSPORT 2.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, he’s okay, not too bad’. He wasn’t outstanding. Maybe it wasn’t until he turned 13 that you start to realize, ‘This kid is really good.’ He was about 13 or 14 years old and like most boys his age, they wanted to be number 10. And I remember, we sat down and said to him, ‘We think you’re hurting love yourself, we think you can do everything,” he added.

“So we came to the decision that, ‘we think you could be number 22’. His eyes lit up and we knew from then on, we had him hooked!” Dodds explains.

Why did Birmingham City permanently retire Bellingham’s number 22 shirt?

Before moving to Dortmund, Bellingham had a total of 44 appearances for the club playing in the English First Division. The fact that Birmingham permanently suspended the 22 shirt of this 17-year-old player surprised many fans.

Normally, sports clubs only retire the shirt of a legend who has retired, passed away, or made great contributions to the team for a long time.

In the official announcement on the homepage, Birmingham explained the decision to retire Bellingham’s shirt because this young talent is considered a role model and symbol of the team. When he was just 15 years old (May 2019), Bellingham debuted for the U23 Birmingham City team. In August 2019, at just 16 years and 38 days old, Bellingham became the youngest player in Birmingham’s history to play for the first team.

However, according to British media, another important reason why Birmingham hung up Bellingham’s shirt is because this player brought a huge amount of transfer money – more than 26 million pounds – to the club, after joining Dortmund.