Bellingham is 17.
Birmingham City have decided to retire Bellingham's shirt number
- Thread starter Damien
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
17 year old!
I've never been a fan of retiring a shirt number, I much prefer that it becomes something iconic that another player can one day inherit. A number that is in itself a legend of legends.
Any videos of their fans stood in their living room infront of the TV giving him a guard of honour yet?
Isn't it to do with how much he's helped the club financially, rather than on the pitch? Daft nonetheless.
They should, can I suggest naming it "The Bell End" ? Think it would be rather fitting for them
Things I can understand:
Birmingham being proud of Jude for being an great talent
Selling one of their own to Dortmund
Retiring his jersey in the youth team - even if a stretch, I could see that.
But retiring his jersey in the senior team after a whopping 1 season? That is some Duckburg level turn of events
The best thing about this is that they are now stuck with it. Jude himself will never ever hear the end of it, and Birmingham looks like the smallest club in England.
Birmingham being proud of Jude for being an great talent
Selling one of their own to Dortmund
Retiring his jersey in the youth team - even if a stretch, I could see that.
But retiring his jersey in the senior team after a whopping 1 season? That is some Duckburg level turn of events
The best thing about this is that they are now stuck with it. Jude himself will never ever hear the end of it, and Birmingham looks like the smallest club in England.
If and BIG if he had stayed for them for 5 years and won the PL, CL and he was sold for a record deal for 300 millions and was the best player of England in a victorious World Cup campaign, I could understand it. But after 40 appearances and 30 millions? It feels like they admit that they are the smallest club ever playing in the top 3 divisions.
Villa fans are surely laughing out loud to the news!
Villa fans are surely laughing out loud to the news!
Christ the night
This is extremely cringe 
Even if he had led them to the Championship title winning a POTS award this still wouldn't be justified.
Absolutely crazy stuff right there.
Absolutely crazy stuff right there.
Would consider it if a top player died suddenly while playing for the club, other than that never. We didn’t even retire 11 for Giggs...
Hilarious replies
That’s so spectacularly lame
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He will turn out to be not so good, Mark my words and quote me in a few years
Absurd from Birmingham. The eyes and pressure on Bellingham is massive now. Apparently Mason Greenwood‘s dad asked United to protect him which is why the media has had virtually no access to him. Dortmund and Birmingham are doing the opposite to a younger player. He’s a meme already.
I can understand retiring it for maybe - a year?
Wait....what? They actually did that?
I suppose 22 is a number no-one will miss. But still, why??
It's probably temporary. I remember Schalke retiring their number 7 jersey for Raul after he left playing 2 seasons. It was more a gesture of how much they valued a global star like him playing for them. Meyer got the number 7 jersey the season after.
Some interesting names in there and many posthumous decisions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retired_numbers_in_association_football
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retired_numbers_in_association_football
If you put it that way, he is definitely worthy.
incredibly dumb What an embarrassing publicity stunt.
fecking eejits
AEL, a football club in Greece, retired 24 this year after American basketballer Koby Bryant died.
, don’t get clubs retiring shirts at the best of times, even more so if it’s a 17 year oldYou mean like United tried to tune down expectations for the lad when they made it known that they brought/flew in SAF and Cantona to make an impression? Don't kid yourself the media attention/hype is inevitable when European top clubs fight over the latest wonderkid. The part that's actually manageable starts when there's football to be played.
United didn’t make any of that public. All the noises are that Bellingham has an exceptional maturity and attitude (hence why he playing men’s football at 16) so hopefully he’ll deal with it.
I don’t even like clubs retiring numbers for actual legends let alone this.
I much prefer numbers becoming legacies themselves, imagine if we’d retired the number 7 after Best or Robson, the exploits of Cantona, Beckham, Ronaldo, Depay would have never contributed to its aura.
I much prefer numbers becoming legacies themselves, imagine if we’d retired the number 7 after Best or Robson, the exploits of Cantona, Beckham, Ronaldo, Depay would have never contributed to its aura.
I kind of want him to flop now. Would be very amusing all around.
Do we know how many miracles this Jude has performed yet to justify his shirt number being retired?
I feel sorry for the player who has their heart set on that number 22. Luckily 21 might still be available, and there's also 23.
I feel sorry for the player who has their heart set on that number 22. Luckily 21 might still be available, and there's also 23.
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