Jude Bellingham's England dream, aged 10

A 10-year-old Jude Bellingham wrote he wanted to play football for England when he grew up, his former head teacher said.

"Even then he had the aspiration to take his skill somewhere," Vanessa Payne, of Hagley Primary School, near Stourbridge, said.

Current primary pupils watched as Bellingham scored England's first goal in the Qatar World Cup clash with Iran.

Mrs Payne said Bellingham was "such a fantastic young man" as a boy.

The message about wanting to be a footballer featured in his year's leavers book in 2014 under the heading "When I grow up I want to be...".

Alongside other pupils who wrote jobs like scientist, estate agent and ice-cream man, little Jude Bellingham wrote "professional footballer for England".

"He's left a legacy here of sportsmanship and ambition and trying to be the best you can be," Mrs Payne said.

She told BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester the footballer, who was in class 6T before he left, "stood out for us all those years ago".

"He was kind, he was thoughtful and he was a good sport - and he was just somebody people wanted to be around," she added.

Deputy head Rob Tindall said the whole school was "absolutely buzzing" after the teenager's first goal of the tournament.

At 19 years and 145 days, Bellingham became England's third youngest starter at a World Cup behind Luke Shaw in 2014 and Michael Owen in 1998.

"The school erupted when that goal went in," he said. "The children loved watching the game, to walk round and see their faces and see how happy they were to see him score and to see England do well, we couldn't have asked for more.

"We so proud of him, the fact he was only at this school not long ago - it's what dreams are made of."

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