World Cup winner recalls being ‘broken’ after Jude Bellingham brutally turned down kit swap

Jude Bellingham once left a World Cup winner 'broken' after refusing to swap shirts with him in a humiliating incident.

The 21-year-old has become one of the best players in the world after bursting onto the scene as a teenager with hometown club Birmingham City in the Championship.

In the summer of 2020, he moved to Borussia Dortmund for a reported £25m, with the Blues subsequently retiring his shirt number of 22.

Bellingham ended up scoring 24 goals in 132 appearances for the Bundesliga side, before moving to Real Madrid in the summer of 2023 for an initial €103m transfer fee.

Bellingham netted 23 goals in 42 games across his first season at the Santiago Bernabeu as Real won the La Liga title and the Champions League.

Bellingham has also become a first choice selection for England, and has six goals in 38 caps, being part of the squads which ended as runners-up at Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, as well as making the quarter-final stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Euro 2024 was held in Germany, the nation which has four World Cups under to its name and won the tournament in Brazil in 2014.

Mario Gotze scored the winner in the final against Argentina, with the Germans also dumping hosts Brazil out of the tournament with a 7-1 thrashing at the semi-final stage.

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A member of the triumphant 2014 German World Cup winning squad was midfielder Christoph Kramer, who picked up 12 caps for his country between 2014 and 2016.

Kramer made three appearances at the World Cup, including in the final against Argentina.

The midfielder moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Borussia Monchengladbach in 2016 and played for them for eight years before departing this summer.

In that time with Monchengladbach, he faced Bellingham following the England man's move to the Bundesliga in 2020 with Dortmund and has revealed how the now Real midfielder once refused to swap shirts with Kramer in a brutal incident when he simply walked past him and tapped him on the shoulder.

Kramer said: "I thought it was terrible too. I asked, 'Can I have your jersey?'

"He heard it, he also looked at me briefly, then went straight ahead and patted me on the shoulder. So much honour and so much pride was broken in me."