Bellingham will ‘always respect’ Southgate as England future questioned

England star Jude Bellingham says he will “always respect” head coach Gareth Southgate after being questioned about his future.

The Three Lions lost 2-1 to Spain in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday, marking another final defeat under the former Middlesbrough manager.

Nico Williams opened the scoring, before substitute Cole Palmer levelled things in the second half.

But Mikel Oyarzabal netted the winner a few minutes from time, to hand Spain their fourth European trophy.

Bellingham played the entire match for England but could not have the desired impact on the pitch.

He set up Palmer’s goal and missed another big chance, which proved costly in Berlin.

Southgate has put his faith in the 21-year-old following his excellent campaign for Real Madrid and Bellingham says he will be happy if he does stay on until the 2026 World Cup.

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Jude Bellingham took out his frustration after the whistle 💔 pic.twitter.com/HUrMYj9myb

— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 14, 2024

He said: “He is someone who, I think, in the last year or two as well, our relationship’s kind of gone a little bit past football, where I feel like I can open up to him a lot and I think that speaks volumes of the kind of man he is as well.

“Whatever happens with Gareth, I’ll always respect him. If he stays, then I’ll be even more determined to win something for him because he deserves it.

“Sometimes the numbers and the kind of statistics, the records don’t lie, he’s been our most successful manager since 1966.

“So whatever he decides, he will always have my respect and my love.”

The country was left devastated after Spain’s late goal and the mood was reflected in the players’ faces as they collected their runners-up medals.

Bellingham showed once again he is more mature than his age in his post-match interview and summed up the mood of the nation pretty accurately.

We fell short of what we wanted to achieve this summer, but this group gave everything and have done us proud.

Your support in Germany and back home has been incredible. Thank you. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YBivqQXfJe

— England (@England) July 14, 2024

He added: “We all wanted nothing more than to make history and to make the people of England proud and we haven’t managed to do it, we didn’t quite deliver.

“There’s reasons for that and I’m sure as a team and going forward, we’ll analyse it but I think it’s a young group still.

“It’s really disappointing because at some point we do have to deliver, but there are experiences and there are things we can take from this tournament going forward.

“I suppose if you look at everything negatively, nothing will ever change.

“So it’s important we pick the positives and the negatives together and find a way to one day get England over the line.

“I came here to win. We came here to win. Like I said, there’s experiences that we can take going into the next one. So I suppose you could say that’s kind of some solace.

“It’s one of those where you probably need a bit more time to digest it and analyse it, and we’ll do that as a team, individually, look over how it went and bounce back.

“It’s a young team with a lot of potential and I know people be frustrated that we haven’t delivered yet, but I definitely feel that it is coming.”