Tactically, we have to look at half-time. 7-0 to England, and Mark Bellingham scored six and set up the seventh. He was involved in everything. At my place, when a player is involved in everything, it means the others have gone to pick up the kids.
The match was on Sunday, in Cambridgeshire, a friendly against Ireland. The team is officially called “England Over 50s”. Final score: 13-1. After the break he scored just one. One. I see a coach who asked him to manage his effort, and a player who only half listened. I run that on Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is.
I read all this in HLN on Monday, with the third provincial division table (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) open next to it, as usual. The guy played about 25 years in the lower English divisions and scored more than 700 goals there. They nicknamed him the “Pelé of amateur football”. He stopped in 2019, aged 43. In between he worked for the police, and today he manages his sons, Jude at Real Madrid and Jobe at Dortmund.
The same Sunday, Jude scored in Real’s 0-3 win away at Racing Santander, the newly promoted side. So the father scored, the son scored, everybody scored. I draw no conclusion. I just note that the father got seven.
Silly question, but if you have to be over 50, he’s just the right age, isn’t he?
What interests me is the profile. A striker who scores, who sets others up, and who runs the careers of two pro players on the side. My centre-forward mostly runs the key to the clubhouse bar. The level in the third provincial division has gone way up, people don’t realise, but seven goals in one afternoon, we’ve never done that, even playing downhill.
I still wrote the name in my folder, under my two strikers. In pencil, because the club delegate says we’re not the right age for the category.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
