Football fan thrilled to meet hero Bellingham

An England football fan was thrilled to meet star player Jude Bellingham for a chat by a hotel swimming pool, just hours after the player's two-goal heroics against Mexico.

Chris Walton, from Stourbridge, the same town as the 23-year-old footballer, said they chatted for about 15 minutes and found they had some aquaintances in common.

The supporter has been to three England World Cup games and during his three-and-a-half weeks in the US spent three days in Kansas.

"Nobody back home could believe it when I started sending the picture back. Everyone was asking if it was AI, but it was 100% genuine."

The meeting came about when he met a woman who had an apartment in the England team's hotel and she let him into the site.

"She'd been listening to me, how far I'd travelled... and unbelievably she said 'look, just come with me, I can actually get you in there'."

Walton said that after speaking with the apartment owner, "we get through a gate and the first person that's there sunbathing is Jude Bellingham round the pool".

The fan, from Wordsley in the Stourbridge area, explained he told the Real Madrid star where he was from and Bellingham "knew a couple of people that I knew".

"I was pinching myself, literally it was probably about 18 hours after they arrived back from Mexico. I'm round the pool in the team hotel with him."

Bellingham had scored twice in 98 seconds amid the passion in the Azteca Stadium as England secured victory in the last-16 game.

Walton, who is now staying with family in Indianapolis, said his time at the hotel was on a day when "a lot of the players had been given the day off to spend with families".

Some were spotted, but from a distance, he added.

The supporter said he "saw [Eberechi] Eze, Bukayo Saka, [Nico] O'Reilly, Anthony Gordon, Dan Burn, saw all those on bikes".

He said he had randomly decided to visit the hotel which was "heavily guarded by police".

"I nearly got in, because I was actually wearing England training gear that day.

"I was honest with them [security] and just told 'em I was a fan there... trying to get photos and I was there for hours."

Walton said during his US stay he had also met darts stars Luke Littler and Luke Humphries in the reception of the ITV hotel in New York.

Bellingham now has six goals at the World Cup, after also scoring twice in the quarter-final win against Norway, heading into Wednesday's meeting with Argentina in Atlanta for a place in the final.

Along with England team-mate and boyhood friend Morgan Rogers, the Stourbridge-born player has been depicted on a mural eating orange chips in Quinton in the West Midlands and the pair are also to be offered the freedom of Dudley.

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