Topics: Real Madrid, Sunderland, Jude Bellingham, Non-League, Champions League, EFL Championship
When Jude Bellingham started rattling in the goals in his first season at Real Madrid, nobody should have been surprised.
Bellingham has goals in his blood. Mark Bellingham, the father of England midfielder Jude and his brother, Sunderland's Jobe, is one of the greatest non-league scorers of all time.
At the beginning of the 1994-95 season, Mark scored his first senior goal for Essex outfit East Thurrock United. Early in 2016-17, at the age of 40, the stalwart striker fired in a free kick that helped Birmingham-based Paget Rangers defeat Fairfield Villa and brought up a remarkable 700th goal.
Paget were playing in the Midland League Division Two at Step 7, the 11th tier of the English football pyramid, but Bellingham's goals were netted throughout the non-league tiers.
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Essex-born Bellingham, a police officer in his day job, moved to the West Midlands and swiftly started racking up the goals for some of the regions biggest non-league names.
His lengthy football CV includes the likes of Halesowen Town, Stourbridge, Bromsgrove Rovers, Hednesford Town and Sutton Coldfield Town, but he dropped down the divisions as he approached his 40th birthday.
The non-league hitman's final club was Southam United, where he hung up his boots shortly before Jude joined the first team at Birmingham City.
"I’ve started to score a lot more tap-ins and the range is getting a lot shorter," he told The Non-League Paper back in 2016, celebrating his 700th goal.
"I needed 38 goals last season but got to 36 and then was banned for the last game because of a red card – my first ever sending-off.
"I was thinking over the summer whether it was the right time to go out, but with just two needed to reach 700, it felt like there was a bit of unfinished business.
"It’s out of the way now so I can chill out."
Mark was not a chilled-out player. As his incredible strike rate suggests, he was an industrious striker with a knack for goal. He remains a respected figure in West Midlands non-league football but now shares the spotlight with his two famous footballing sons.
Jude has won the Champions League and La Liga since leaving Birmingham City – who retired his shirt number – for Borussia Dortmund and later Real Madrid.
Jobe is a regular in the Championship for Sunderland, who are 90 minutes away from a return to the Premier League after they dramatically defeated Coventry City in the Championship play-off semi-finals.
