Bellingham was a joint winner of the Young Player of the Year award at the North East Football Writers’ Association’s annual awards dinner on Sunday evening, sharing the honour with his team-mate Chris Rigg.
The pair have been at the spearhead of Sunderland’s turn towards youth in recent years, leading a marked shift that has seen the club prioritise the acquisition and development of teenage talent within the first-team environment.
Bellingham does not turn 20 until September, yet he already has more than 100 senior appearances under his belt, while 17-year-old Rigg has already racked up more than a half-century of matches in a senior Sunderland shirt.
The likes of Anthony Patterson, Dan Neil, Trai Hume, Dennis Cirkin and Tommy Watson are all key members of the first-team group, and while Bellingham joined Sunderland from Birmingham City at a relatively early stage of the club’s shift towards a youth-orientated stance, he feels the rest of the footballing world has now caught up with the club’s new-found status as a crucible for teenage talent.
“For the club, I think this (the joint-award) just shows how they’ve improved and become amazing at nurturing young players,” said Bellingham, who joined Rigg on stage at Durham’s Ramside Hall Hotel to receive his award. “It’s part of the make-up of the club now, and the fans are completely behind it.
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“They get our full support, and we get their full support on a matchday. It’s a really good relationship, and the club feels like a really good place to be at the minute.
“That’s testament to everyone at the club really, from top to bottom. That two players can win this Young Player award just shows that the club is willing to nurture players, and then get the best out of them, which we’ve done not just with me and Riggy, but with many players as you see in the squad and down the years recently.
“I think it will maybe show other players that the club are interested in that this is a really good place to be for young players. It helps you develop, and it allows you to play for a massive club, which you get massive experiences from. Then it helps you grow, and also compete.”
Bellingham’s development continues apace, with the teenager having established himself as one of the brightest and most highly-regarded talents in the whole of the Football League.
In the early stages of his career at Birmingham, he inevitably lived in the shadow cast by his brother, Jude, but he has struck out on his own since moving to Sunderland, with his mature, level-headed nature having helped him maximise the natural talent that enabled him to break through at St Andrew’s at an extremely young age.
“I’ve been given the chance by coaches and managers that thankfully I’ve got and have had here, and when I was younger at Birmingham,” said Bellingham. “There’s been a lot of failure along the way, but exposure to those experiences has been massive.
“You get some success and sometimes you don’t, but you learn, and it’s important that you do learn and you do review these experiences. It’s great learning, and it really helps you develop.
“I think because of the way I am, I’ve used it to boost myself and try to keep going and get better and better. That’s where I think I’ve done quite well in improving from last season and the season before that, and hopefully onto next season as well.
“I want to keep on improving, and I think that’s the most important thing because you can have all the talent in the world, but it’s about, ‘Can you go again? Can you keep going and get better and better?’ That’s something that I pride myself on and something that I want to keep doing.”
That work ethic and strive for self-improvement is shared by Rigg, with Bellingham having been hugely impressed by his fellow youngster’s attitude and talent since moving to Wearside just over a year-and-a-half ago.
“I knew about Riggy before I joined, to be fair,” said Bellingham. “But he’s the player I’ve been most impressed with since I came to the club. Him and the likes of Dan Neil, playing next to people like Riggy and Dan, I’ve seen how good they are, and how hard they work as well, which I much mention about Riggy in particular.
“Every day he trains like he wants to get better, with a great ambition and a great desire. That’s the best thing for me, really. The talent kind of comes secondary, which he definitely has. But him as a person, he’s always going to keep improving because of that hunger that he’s got.
“For me, they’re the players that you want to be playing with. Riggy fully deserves the award, and he’s just got to keep going because he’s on to big things.”
