Jude Bellingham becomes first England player to speak out on Gareth Southgate's future after Euro 2024 heartbreak

England midfielder Jude Bellingham has explained why he will be "even more determined" to win a major tournament if Gareth Southgate remains in charge.

The Three Lions fell at the final hurdle on Sunday night after Mikel Oyarzabal's 86th-minute goal handed Spain a record-breaking fourth European Championship title in Berlin.

At one stage, it looked like England were in the driving seat. Second-half substitute Cole Palmer beat Unai Simon with a brilliant strike to level the scores and a brief surge followed.

But in the final stages, Gareth Southgate's side appeared to run out of stream before Oyarzabal tapped home from close range to break English hearts.

After he came agonisingly close to securing the country's first piece of silverware since 1966, an emotional Southgate was asked about his future.

"Now is not the time for me to speak about that," he said in his post-match interview with the BBC. "I need to talk to the right people and give myself a bit of time."

Southgate added: "To get to another final... it was a privilege to have the opportunity. But to come up short is hard at the moment."

Image credit: Getty

Not long after, an equally-as-devastated Jude Bellingham was asked for his thoughts on Gareth Southgate's future at the helm.

"For me, it's down to the manager and what the FA decide," Bellingham said. "I've got nothing but respect for Gareth giving me my debut in the squad, made me feel very at home.

"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."

Bellingham would later reflect on England's tournament in Germany. "It's really disappointing because at some point we do have to deliver, but there are experiences and there's things we can take from this tournament going forward," he added.

"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," he added. "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."