BBC“I’ve got a day off work to watch the Champions League.”
Daniel is one of the many hometown fans of Stourbridge-born footballer Jude Bellingham, who is playing in the Champions League Final on Saturday night.
From being voted the 2022-23 Bundesliga Player of the Season to winning 29 England caps, Bellingham is treasured in his home town.
Supporters of the Real Madrid midfielder will be watching as the 20-year-old plays against his former club Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in one of football’s biggest nights of the year.
“When we were in school we used to talk about him,” Daniel said.
“Obviously we’re proud, he’s from our town.”
Because Bellingham was so young, the former Birmingham City footballer and Hagley Primary School pupil had a lot of time to become captain of England, he added.
One man told BBC WM his boss had lived a few doors down from Bellingham’s family when he was growing up.
“I was pretty mindblown,” he said. “I know he’s a proper local lad.”
The Jude Bellingham mural is on the wall of the Ryemarket centre and is the work of Gent 48, a well-known street artist in Digbeth, Birmingham.
Arthur and Clarence, two children from Stourbridge, also said they were proud because Bellingham was from Stourbridge “and Stourbridge is just the best”.
One woman from Stourbridge said her son works at the town’s Mary Stevens Hospice, and that Bellingham and his family do a lot with the town’s football team to fundraise for the hospice, which she said was “fabulous”.
Speaking about Bellingham’s impact on the town’s morale, she said: “It’s good for the community, it’s good just for wellbeing. You feel better, it’s nice to have something good.”
Listen to more fans talking about the footballer on BBC Radio WM
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