STOURBRIDGE, UK: As England gears up for the World Cup semifinal Wednesday, there will be one name on everyone’s lips: Jude Bellingham, the star midfielder who powered the Three Lions through to the marquee clash against Argentina. In packed stadiums in North America and pubs back home, people belt out the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and don t-shirts with slogans like “Bend it like Bellingham” — a play on the iconic 2000s film “Bend it like Beckham.” But nowhere is the 23-year-old midfielder more feted than his hometown of Stourbridge, a quiet market town in central England, west of Birmingham. Wheeling his bike past the town’s shopping center, retiree Keith Hall blows a kiss toward a superhero comic-style mural of Bellingham. “He’s a local lad,” Hall told AFP, adding Bellingham “keeps in touch with his roots” despite now playing for Real Madrid. Bellingham launched his football career playing for the Stourbridge Juniors, before joining Birmingham City’s youth side and becoming the club’s youngest first-team player. “It doesn’t surprise me that he’s become an international sensation because he’s the coolest man currently living,” gushed grocery store worker Sam Holden, 21. “Harry Kane obviously can kind of save us in our time of need, but Jude Bellingham can just take us to the heights that England absolutely are capable of reaching.” A regional railway company is offering passengers named “Jude” free travel in Stourbridge this week. “We look forward to inviting Judes from across the region for a free ride on the Stourbridge Shuttle,” said Jonny Wiseman from the West Midlands Railway. The fever has spread beyond the area, known as Black Country, with a railway station in southeast London briefly renamed to “Jude Bellingham”
