Jude Bellingham claims he was ‘mistreated’ during England’s Euro 2024 campaign

Jude Bellingham believes he was ‘mistreated’ during England’s Euro 2024 campaign in the summer and claims the media ‘crossed the line of respect’.

Bellingham reached the final with England but Gareth Southgate’s side were beaten 2-1 by Spain in the final.

The Real Madrid midfielder produced two key moments at Euro 2024 as he scored England’s first goal of the tournament against Serbia and found the net with a crucial equaliser in their round-of-16 tie against Slovakia.

But Bellingham came under fire for his performances but the 21-year-old now admits he was unhappy throughout the tournament, particularly with journalists attempting to contact his family in England.

‘I’ve got to be honest, I lost my smile a lot playing for England after the Euros as I felt I was a little mistreated in comparison to what I contributed,’ Bellingham said.

‘I think it was a bit harsh on me. I felt a bit like the scapegoat. Maybe I felt a bit sorry for myself.

‘I felt like I contributed some pretty big moments, but it felt like the whole world was crumbling down on me, especially in the three days following the final. It wasn’t a nice feeling.

There were a few things that happened during the tournament, I think one of the big criticisms of me was that I didn’t speak to the media and I didn’t want to do any press conferences. That was reported in a way that made it sound like I think I’m above it but it’s not that at all.

‘I had some personal things going on where journalists had gone to see members of my family whilst I was at the tournament, went to visit my grandparents. It’s something I’ve kept to myself.

‘I don’t think that’s fair, it crosses the line of respect. That’s where I took it a little bit personally and decided that I would just focus on the football and try to let that do the talking, instead of talking in the press to people that seemingly don’t respect me.

‘That was a big thing for me. My family comes first, my nan didn’t want to leave her house for the whole summer, bless her.

‘Maybe I should have communicated that so people understood my situation but that was a little bit more personal to me so that’s why I decided to keep my mouth shut.’

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