Jude Bellingham has carried England through the altitude of Mexico City then the searing heat and humidity of Miami on what increasingly looks like a personal mission to end a 60-year wait to win the World Cup.
The World Cup can sometimes turn into one player’s destiny, carrying an unstoppable momentum towards the sport’s greatest prize.
Think Diego Maradona with Argentina in 1986. Think Ronaldo’s redemption with Brazil in Yokohama in 2002. Think Lionel Messi finally claiming his personal Holy Grail with Argentina in Doha in 2022.
Despite the England star again coming to his nation’s aid with two goals that overcame Norway in the Miami furnace, Bellingham has a long way to go to be bracketed with those iconic figures.
Indeed, there are huge barriers to cross just at this tournament with Messi and Argentina waiting in Atlanta in the semi-final after they beat Switzerland.
And, even then, there is the prospect that Spain, or Kylian Mbappe and a brilliant France side, will be the final frontier to cross in ending the agonising barren years that have stretched back to 30 July 1966 when Sir Alf Ramsey’s England won the World Cup.
Formidable barriers, but sometimes world-class players find the force of will to shape a World Cup as they wish – and Bellingham is threatening to do that after the latest in a string of magnificent displays.
While not daring to place Bellingham in the stratosphere of Pele or Maradona – which would be ridiculously premature given their history and legendary status – his match-winning performances against Mexico in the Azteca, then against Norway in Miami, at least allow a flattering statistical comparison.
Bellingham is the first player to score two or more goals in consecutive knockout stage games at a single World Cup since Maradona’s great tournament in 1986.
He is also, at 23, the second youngest player to achieve this feat behind Pele, who did the same at 17 in 1958 when Brazil won the World Cup in Sweden. (BBC Sport)