England U21 midfielder Jobe Bellingham has followed in the footsteps of his older brother Jude and joined Borussia Dortmund from Sunderland with the aim of continuing his impressive progress at the Bundesliga outfit.

Stats correct as of 10 June 2025

Jobe Bellingham
Age: 19 (born 23 September 2005)
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Position: Midfielder
Country: England (4 U21 caps/0 goals)

Key stats

Inevitably compared to his older brother, Jobe’s career path is almost identical to Jude’s. He made his senior debut for Birmingham City aged just 16 years and 107 days – the club’s second-youngest debutant, after his brother – and immediately looked at home. He signed a professional contract with the Blues in September 2022, but after 22 appearances in the Championship – English football’s second tier – he joined Sunderlandwho had reached the play-offs that season.

Though Jude was a regular visitor to the Stadium of Light, Jobe sought to make a name for himself, wearning “Jobe” and not his surname on the club’s iconic red-and-white shirt. Following an unsettled 2023/24 campaign for his club in which he scored the first seven of his senior goals in 45 Championship appearancesBellingham then played a pivotal role in the Black Cats’ return to the English Premier League.

Bellingham impressed in two seasons at Sunderland, winning promotion to the English Premier League. – Mark Thompson

Is he better than his brother? That is the question that will go unanswered fully for some time, but the statistics suggest he could be. He scored four goals and provided three assists in 40 Championship games in 2024/25 with a pass completion rate 12.6 percent higher than his brother managed in his final season in England in 2019/20. Also, Jobe’s duel ratio was 4.6 percent higher and dribble success rate 1.7 percent better.

Bellingham put his progress down to the input from Sunderland manager Régis Le Bris, the Frenchman who took over at the club in summer 2024. “I realised quite quickly that he was really focused on his work, that he likes to analyse and he gives you a lot of feedback,” Bellingham explained of his French boss, who built a reputation for developing young players in his native country. “That’s really good for a player, because you want to know where you are. You want to know – at least I do in any case – how you can improve and become better all the time.”

Named 2024/25 Championship Young Player of the YearBellingham also made his England U21 debut – aged 19, two years after his brother – in November 2024. He could have now played for his country at the U21 Euro this summer but will instead potentially face his brother at the FIFA Club World Cup, if Dortmund meet Real Madrid during the competition.

Plays a bit like: Jude Bellingham

The parallels are obvious, especially when you see Jobe on the pitch: the physique, the passing quality, the work rate and the ability to bend a game to their will are traits the brothers share.

Like Jude has done for Madrid and England, Jobe played in a number of positions at Sunderland, including false nine and as a playmaking number 10, but Le Bris most often employed him as a box-to-box midfielder.

“He’s still a young player with the ability to play in many different roles,” said Le Bris, who made Bellingham part of the squad’s player leadership group. “But I like him as a No 8, because I think he’s an offensive midfielder. He can express his power, his ability to run and his ability to press – to link defence and attack.”

Did you know?

The brothers’ father, Mark, is a retired police officer and a non-league football legend in England. He started his career in his native Essex – to the east of London – in 1994/95 and finished at the age of 40 in 2016/17 in the English Midlands having scored more than 700 goals.

What they’re saying

“Jobe is an exceptionally talented player who, despite his young age, already possesses remarkable maturity and intelligence. We’re convinced that he fits perfectly with our philosophy of promoting young talent and giving them the opportunity to develop at the highest level.” – Dortmund Managing Director Lars Ricken

“I said to him after the game ‘You’ve done really well, you’re a 16-year-old lad that dominated the ball, didn’t really give it away, tried to do the right things and when you did give it away you ran back, defended in your own box’. He did a lot of good things and I said ‘I only gave you that opportunity because you’ve earned it’.” – Birmingham City manager Lee Bowyer after Bellingham’s debut

“Because he’s young he has big potential in many areas. He has elements to develop, so we can still be surpised by his other qualities.” – Sunderland Manager Régis le Bris