Jude Bellingham and Thomas Tuchel relationship: Why England star player and coach do not always see eye to eye

England are gunning for sporting immortality over the coming days and the end to an infamous 60-year wait. At the heart of these plans to make history lies considerable creative tension.

"The target of this mission is clear: we want to be world champions, we want to put the second star on our shirt. It's important that straight away we speak about it," Tuchel told his England players at their first camp with him as national-team manager in March 2025.

Gareth Southgate had restored the fortunes and standing of a bedraggled football nation, leading England to the 2018 World Cup semifinals and the finals of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. It was clear the only way Tuchel could be considered an improvement upon Southgate, who stepped down after the final defeat to Spain two years ago, was to win England men's second major honour and first since the 1966 World Cup. There was no point beating around the bush.

One of the reasons England are consistently at the business end of tournaments, at odds with a history of struggle and underachievement in international soccer, is a prime supply of elite talent; the fruits of the Premier League's global dominance. And yet, the man who might be remembered as the Three Lions' greatest ever has never played in it.

Jude Bellingham flew the nest at Birmingham City as a teenager, joining Borussia Dortmund and becoming one of the hottest midfield properties in the game. An established part of Southgate's England team as they impressed en route to a quarterfinal exit against France at Qatar 2022, Bellingham then secured a 2023 move to Real Madrid and immediately strutted irresistibly around the Santiago Bernabeu as if he owned the place.

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Still only 23, Bellingham has not quite touched that 2023/24 high-watermark, when he was Madrid's best player as they claimed La Liga and Champions League glory. Well, until now.

At the 2026 World Cup, England's superhero has propelled them to a semifinal date with Argentina. He has six goals at the tournament overall after back-to-back doubles to see off Mexico and Norway. Those exploits made Bellingham the first player to score consecutive braces in World Cup knockout games since a certain Diego Maradona in 1986. And he didn't even punch any of them in.

A bona fide superstar with unflinching self-belief, arguably matched only by Tuchel — the other man in the England dressing room who wins everywhere he goes as a matter of course. A match made in heaven... right?

What did Jude Bellingham say about Thomas Tuchel?

After Bellingham's opportunistic goal early in extra time settled a gruelling quarterfinal against Norway 2-1 in England's favour, both of the men of the hour had microphones thrust under their noses in the stifling Miami heat.

Tuchel made a double substitution at halftime and kept tweaking his team, looking for the winning configuration that belatedly arrived with the introduction of Djed Spence and Morgan Rogers for fine cameos. As the dust began to settle, the England manager made it clear he was not happy with a performance where England dominated without having a shot during the opening half hour and were second best for much of the second period of normal time.

"The result is fantastic, we are in the last four — it's amazing — but I'm not happy with the performance," Tuchel told ITV. "In every sense. Again, the commitment is there, but we made life very, very difficult for ourselves in the way we played, how we played: sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today."

When it was put to Bellingham that his boss had not enjoyed the performance, he told the same UK broadcaster: "Yeah, well, whatever. Whatever. It's difficult out there. It's a tough shift. All the players have put in a tough shift, so my thoughts and appreciation goes to the players who were out there and put in a great shift yet again."

Bellingham had the mitigation of this interview taking place on the field straight after the match, with emotions high and tempers stretched to fraying. But when Tuchel's comments were — again, in abridged form — put to him in a mixed zone interview, after he'd been back to the England locker room, Bellingham stood his ground even more firmly.

"Maybe he doesn't know what it's like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Odegaard, [Antonio] Nusa, [Alexander] Sorloth," he said, in what felt like a not-too-subtle dig at Tuchel's modest playing career. "That's not an easy team to play against. So, I think we've tried to create a positive environment. You're not going to win every game, popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty, and we've done that again tonight."

It felt like enmity, which is rumoured to have bubbled under the surface throughout England's Tuchel reign, bursting to the surface in a high-pressure environment. Right now, Tuchel has lightning in a bottle with Bellingham in this form at the sharp end of a tournament. It feels fair to wonder whether it will propel England to glory or blow up in his face. If the past 18 months tell us anything, it's that this probably doesn't end quietly.

MORE: England 'It's Coming Home' meaning, explained

Jude Bellingham and Thomas Tuchel timeline

Prelude: Euro 2024

Despite reaching the final, England's time in Germany at Euro 2024 never felt like a particularly happy one.

One of the virtues of Southgate's team at previous tournaments was that they felt like an exceptionally well-drilled unit, sure of their roles and objectives. At Euro 2024, a talent-stacked squad quickly looked lopsided. A left flank with right-footed full-back Kieran Trippier and recently crowned PFA and FWA Player of the Year Phil Foden made England very narrow. Foden, England captain Harry Kane and Bellingham, coming off his banner season at Real Madrid, were frequently trying to operate in the same spaces in front of a midfield where the experiment of using Trent Alexander-Arnold as a central playmaker was jettisoned after one and a half matches.

In short, it was a mess. England hustled their way to the final after Bellingham's brilliant overhead kick averted humiliation in the Round of 16 against Slovakia. Even so, his "WHO ELSE?!" celebration didn't feel very Gareth, didn't feel very 'Dear England'. Bellingham venting fury towards the England bench became one of the images of their tournament.

"I think at the Euros [in 2024], we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch. I don't feel like the group connected as well as it could have — for a number of reasons," Bellingham told England's YouTube channel prior to the World Cup. "We weren't playing particularly well, which doesn't help. So even when we were winning, we didn't get the feeling that we were as happy as we should be."

After Southgate stepped down, England Under-21 boss Lee Carsley took over on an interim basis. Bellingham missed his first internationals in charge with a muscular injury but played the final four of Carsley's successful Nations League Group B campaign, rounding things off by winning a penalty for Kane and supplying a couple of assists in a 5-0 win over the Republic of Ireland.

"I lost my smile a lot after the Euros when it came to playing for England because I felt like I was a little bit mistreated in ­comparison to what I contributed. I felt like some of it was a bit harsh on me. I felt I was a bit like the scapegoat. Maybe I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself," Bellingham said after the November 2024 international break.

"I think that camp [under Carsley] with a lot of new faces really brought out the joy in my game again, and I think you can see that in the last two games."

Was this a player back in a comfort zone, feeling like he could call the shots and admitting he was susceptible to sulking because of who he was? That would be a harsh reading. But it feels fair to assume that the notes taken by the incoming Tuchel were not too dissimilar.

MORE: England vs. Argentina history: Head-to-head matches at World Cup and more

2025: 'Repulsive' and dropped

Bellingham started each of England's first three games under Tuchel, routine World Cup qualifying wins over Albania, Latvia and Andorra. He came off the bench and looked to salvage a listless friendly performance against Senegal in Nottingham.

Late on, Bellingham had an equaliser disallowed for a debatable handball against Levi Colwill before Youssouf Sabaly ensured Senegal became the first African nation to beat England, who were booed off. Bellingham was visibly furious. At the fulltime whistle, he blasted the ball into the air before booting a water cooler near the technical area and seeking an exchange of views with the assistant referee. Kane pushed his teammate back onto the pitch to applaud the supporters who remained inside the City Ground before Tuchel then appeared to try calming him down.

In an interview with talkSPORT the following day, Tuchel said: "I think he brings an edge, which we welcome, and which is needed if we want to achieve big things. [But] it needs to be channelled.

"The edge needs to be channelled towards the opponent, towards our goal and not to intimidate teammates or to be over-aggressive towards teammates or referees, but towards opponents. And always towards the solution, meaning towards winning.

"He has the fire, and I don't want to dim this down. He should play with this kind of fire. That's his strength. But the fire comes also with some attributes that can intimidate you, maybe even as a teammate."

Tuchel added: "I see that it can create mixed emotions. I see this with my parents, with my mum, that she sometimes cannot see the nice and well-educated and well-behaved guy that I see. And the smile — if he smiles, he wins everyone. But sometimes you see the rage, you see the hunger and the rage and the fire and it comes out in a way that can be a bit repulsive for example, for my mother, when she sits in front of the TV. I see that."

It's worth presenting Tuchel's comments in full and the context they came in, after Bellingham's blow-up in the aftermath of the Senegal game and at the end of his toughest 12 months as an England player. But all of the fair comments within — some of it stuff that has clearly remained a guiding force for Tuchel in North America — were obscured by that one word. "Repulsive." It was needlessly inflammatory and it feels unfair to blame Ma' Tuchel in the this instance for her son's radical honesty coming without any sort of filter.

Bellingham and those around him were understandably affronted and Tuchel apologised for the choice of words. That should have been that, only Bellingham missed the September wins over Andorra and Serbia as he recovered from shoulder surgery. The 5-0 win in Belgrade was England's standout performance under Tuchel, and he decided to reward all involved by sticking with the same squad for the October internationals.

Those were a friendly against Wales and a low-stakes qualifier versus Latvia. Bellingham had just returned to fitness, but he was available. Therefore, the repulsive one had been dropped. He returned to face Serbia and Albania in November, both dead-rubber wins, but reacted with animated frustration when he was substituted six minutes from time. None of it exactly looked ideal.

2026: England's saviour

Bellingham kicked around amid Tuchel's experimental approach to the March international break and played in neither friendly against Uruguay or Japan. But this didn't really matter. It meant he was going to the World Cup as Tuchel whittled through his remaining options in a sort of Three Lions Combine. 

Foden and Cole Palmer were among those to play and fall foul. Tuchel clearly did not want any of the muddle of Euro 2024. For all the tough love shown towards Bellingham, it's tougher for those such as Foden, Palmer and Morgan Gibbs-White, who are looking on from home. The fact that Bellingham's only remaining challenger for the No. 10 role in the England squad is his great mate Morgan Rogers feels quietly significant.

Much was made heading into the World Cup about how this England team was built for Harry Kane. What's become clear as the tournament has progressed is that it's also built for the player Tuchel wants Bellingham to be. A player he's emphatically getting.

The coach concedes he is asking Bellingham to perform a different role to the one he has enjoyed over the past couple of years at Real Madrid, a little deeper and with freedom to roam.

Declan Rice has struggled with illness and injury at the World Cup, but when the Arsenal man and Elliot Anderson are both on the pitch, Tuchel wants Bellingham high up and getting beyond Kane like both of his wide attackers. It demands a lot of hard running, and Bellingham is still putting in huge shifts in terms of defensive work, because that's just the player he is.

He is performing exceptionally, while being taxed physically and pushed mentally by a manager who, with good reason, has an ego to match his star player's. Tuchel and Bellingham both know how to win, especially in knockout football; it's what they do. They have five more days to keep this thing on the road and drive England to their greatest triumph.