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Bellingham has scored 41 goals in 111 appearances for Real Madrid since joining two years ago, playing a key role in a side which has won La Liga and the Uefa Champions League.
He flourished under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti, renowned for his ability to handle the personalities in Los Blancos’ squad, but like his team-mates has found things more difficult under new manager Xabi Alonso this season.
“He has a great reputation in Madrid,” said Jesus Bengoechea, a writer for Real Madrid fan media outlet La Galerna.
“The fans love him, not only for his technical quality but his commitment to the team. He comes across as somebody who is really dedicated to the shirt and what it represents.
“He plays a very influential role in the dressing room – he is one of the players who has stepped up after players like Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema left. It surprises a lot of people that he is not more acclaimed in England.
“Lately there have been some rumours about him being not so disciplined in some ways, certain things about the level of intense work Alonso is asking the players to do. But we haven’t seen that on the pitch and I find it hard to believe.
“Alonso is like Tuchel, both quite cold characters and very tactical. I think it is a matter of personalities that don’t gel.”
If you agree with filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu that Tom Cruise “doesn’t just make movies — he is movies,” then the Oscar that Cruise received at the motion picture academy’s annual Governors Awards wasn’t just long overdue. It was a restoration of balance, a necessary correction, not to mention a nod to the sheer weight of Cruise’s body of work in the collective imagination.
When multi-hyphenate Debbie Allen, herself an honoree, worked in a reference to the “tighty-whities” Cruise wore sliding across the floor in “Risky Business” into her own acceptance speech, you could understand why he received the night’s longest ovation. He really is movies. In one way or another, he completes us.
Cruise, 63, was still shaking hands and posing for pictures long after the ceremony ended Sunday night. He may in fact still be in the Ray Dolby Ballroom, listening to people tell him giddy and sometimes teary stories of when they first saw him in a movie. After Iñárritu introduced him, Cruise delivered a gracious, cinema-booster speech, at one point asking everyone in the room who had worked with him to stand.
“I carry you with me, each of you, and you are part of every frame of every film I have ever made or ever will make,” Cruise said. And yes, he was in alignment with Iñárritu. “Making films is not what I do. It’s who I am.”
Trailblazer Wynn Thomas, widely recognized as the first Black production designer in film, and Dolly Parton also received Oscars at the Governors Awards ceremony. These honorary Oscars, once part of the televised Academy Awards, were spun off into their own event in 2009.
Parton, 79, was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Health issues, which led to a postponement of her December Las Vegas residency, prevented Parton from attending in person. But she thanked the academy by video, saying, “We didn’t have too much to share, but my mama and daddy showed me that the more you give, the more blessings come your way. And I have been blessed more than I ever dreamed possible, like with this award tonight.”
Lily Tomlin, Parton’s “9 to 5” co-star, gave a delightful, digressive introduction. Capping the presentation, Andra Day sang a spine-tingling cover of Parton’s classic “Jolene.”
The Governors Awards are not televised and, as Will Arnett, introducing the evening, noted, “There are no commercial breaks. The orchestra is not waiting to play anybody off. There is nothing stopping us from doing this until the sun comes up.” The relaxed nature of the show gives honorees room to roam with their speeches and also offers current Oscar contenders a chance to schmooze with voters.
In one corner of the ballroom, you might find filmmakers Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach and Joachim Trier engaged in a debate over who is better, Jean-Luc Godard or Francois Truffaut, a French New Wave throwdown inspired by Linklater’s sly homage “Nouvelle Vague.” Across the room, Sydney Sweeney, meeting Cruise for the first time, compared notes on broken bones. Outside, Iñárritu told director Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”) about his upcoming movie, starring Cruise. (“It sounds crazy,” Coogler said.)
Cruise was on everyone’s mind, except perhaps Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe, director of the superb thriller “Sirāt,” who did not know the actor was receiving an honorary Oscar. People offered me their favorite Cruise movies. Director Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”) went with “Edge of Tomorrow.” Shih-Ching Tsou (“Left-Handed Girl”) chose “Top Gun.” (“I fell in love,” she says.) And Coogler went with a wild card, picking the compulsively rewatchable 1988 comedy “Cocktail.”
“It was my parents’ favorite movie, so I saw it all the time,” Coogler says. “I know it’s nonsensical.”
Ethan Hawke, who made “The Last Movie Stars,” a six-part documentary on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, recalled how Newman didn’t want his honorary Oscar in 1986. He hoped to win one outright. A year later, he took the lead actor trophy for “The Color of Money,” which, yes, co-starred Cruise.
“Cruise should have won for ‘Magnolia,’ one of the best performances of my lifetime,” Hawke told me. “My suspicion is that this will be the first of many Oscars for Tom Cruise. He’ll get this honorary one and then four more in the next 20 years.”
Thomas, it could be argued, should have won a competitive Oscar years ago for any number of movies, including his striking work creating the single block setting in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” Relating his journey to becoming a visual storyteller, Thomas recalled growing up in “one of the worst slums of Philadelphia,” sitting on his front stoop reading Shakespeare, James Baldwin and Tennessee Williams, immersed and transported.
“The local gangs looked down on me and called me sissy,” Thomas said. “But that sissy grew up to work with some great filmmakers.”
Presenting Allen with her Oscar, “Wicked’s” Cynthia Erivo said “to know Miss Debbie is to know that she refuses to let dreams fade and has a determination to make them happen.”
“I myself am fortunate enough to consider her my auntie,” Erivo added.
Allen’s five-decade career includes choreographing the Oscars seven times, as well as films including “Forget Paris” and “A Jazzman’s Blues.” Her producing credits include Steven Spielberg’s 1997 historical drama “Amistad.” She’s probably best known as an actor on the ’80s television series “Fame,” for which she also served as a choreographer. Her nonprofit dance academy is a Los Angeles institution.
Allen namechecked the Dodgers, her husband (the Los Angeles Lakers legend Norm Nixon) and, of course, Oscar.
“It’s like I got married … sorry, Norm,” she said, cradling the statue. “I’m definitely taking him to work with me and keeping him close to remind me, not of what I’ve done, but what I get, need and have to do.”
The accomplished manner in which Rogers has taken to the England stage has given Tuchel a wonderful conundrum, while the searing heat at next summer’s World Cup means he is likely to deploy “starters” and “finishers”, Bellingham and Rogers can do both.
Rogers has an avid admirer in Tuchel. He has made 10 appearances under him, starting six games and playing for a total of 531 minutes. Bellingham has started four, playing 374 minutes in total.
Tuchel will not duck big decisions. He will not indulge in star systems or simply pack his team with the biggest names.
So who will start?
For all Rogers’ impressive work, Bellingham has proved he can deliver game-changing moments at the highest level, his status also confirmed when Albania’s Kristjan Asllani asked him to swap shirts at half-time rather than risk leaving it until the end.
Phil Foden will be in Tuchel’s thinking, with the German saying he does not see the Manchester City forward as a winger, and instead “as a mix between a nine and a 10”.
Chelsea’s Cole Palmer also has the ability and class to force his way into the squad if he can recover from his groin injury.
In reality, however, it looks like a choice between Bellingham and Rogers.
Bellingham’s greater experience of the rarefied air of major competitions will surely just give him the edge when Tuchel names his team for England’s first World Cup game.
No arguments were settled about the Rogers-Bellingham conundrum on this night, other than to confirm the childhood friends from the Midlands are giving Tuchel the most pleasant of selection headaches.
The betting would still be on Bellingham starting the World Cup, but Rogers has made his mark. Bellingham is likely to start against Albania in Tirana, so it is now over to him.
Manchester City’s Foden is an outsider to force his way into that discussion, but there is no doubt he made a big impression on Tuchel with a lively 25-minute cameo, forcing his way through dangerous central areas, where the head coach wants him, creating several moments of danger as well as setting up Eze’s goal.
Kane is, understandably, an immovable object as England’s spearhead, but Foden is clearly in Tuchel’s thinking as he said: “He was excellent. You can see he is full of confidence. He showed it.
“I like to have him in centre of pitch in close connection with other players. He did well. It is a big ask to challenge Harry at the moment. He is in the shape of his life. But to be an accomplice and share some minutes, then he is an option.
“You can see he is full of confidence. You can see it in the first minutes when you meet him. You feel he is light and he is smiling. His movements are a joy to watch, you can see he is competitive.”
England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, yet to concede a goal in World Cup qualifying and with a record 10th successive clean sheet, also echoed the benefits of Tuchel’s squad strength.
He said: “It just gives us variety, and everyone knows how great Harry is at coming down low to get the ball and start spraying balls. Phil Foden comes on and nearly gets two goals. It’s great to have those options going forward.
“We have got the depth as team England. You have to be playing well and Jude is playing well at his club. It’s his first camp since the summer. He has come on tonight and made a massive impact.
“You have to give that credit to Morgan, he has come in the last few games and stepped up. The manager has put the trust in him even though we have someone like Jude and Phil on the bench. We have a lot of options. It’s about being team England sticking together moving forward.”
Foden’s Manchester City team-mate Nico O’Reilly made an accomplished senior debut at left-back, a position still up for grabs, while Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa grows in stature with every game, a genuine contender for a place in central defence with John Stones and Marc Guehi.
Rashford faces competition on the left flank, especially from Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon, missing here with a hip injury, as well as Arsenal’s Noni Madueke when he is fit again, but his renaissance at Barcelona has put him back in the frame.
He had moments at Wembley, especially with some superb sleight of foot, but both he and Tuchel would have wished for better end product. He still has work to do to keep rivals at bay.
The scenery for England’s World Cup auditions now shifts to Tirana against Albania on Sunday – with it all still to play for in the battle for places.