Sunderland told when ‘big boys will come knocking’ for Jobe Bellingham – with brother of Real Madrid superstar Jude generating plenty of transfer talk

At just 19 years of age, the highly-rated playmaker is being backed to the follow in the footsteps of brother Jude – who is now a ‘Galactico’ at Real Madrid after first linking up with Borussia Dortmund when he left Birmingham City.

Jobe is also a product of the Blues’ youth system, but stayed closer to home when leaving his roots in 2023. He has become an important part of a promotion-chasing puzzle at Sunderland – with the Black Cats looking to step back up into the big time after an eight-year absence.

Bellingham is crucial to those plans, with the general consensus being that Sunderland need to secure Premier League football in order to keep the most prized of assets on their books. That is an opinion shared by Jason McAteer.

The ex-Black Cats star has told 10bet when asked about Bellingham’s future: “He's grabbed himself a few goals and he's played about 28 games this season. For a 19-year-old to play that amount of times in the Championship where it's a very difficult league, he's learning a lot from being in that division.

“Having played there, I know what he's going through. It's very difficult to live in the shadow Jude Bellingham. The golden boy of English football playing for Real Madrid. He's an absolute star…to try and follow in his footsteps is very difficult.

“The family are very grounded and level-headed. He comes from a great background. He's at the right football club and it's a brilliant football club. Amazing fan base. Great place to live. They’re in fourth, a few points behind Burnley, within touching distance of Leeds.

“They could actually go up automatically. And that fan base will get behind them. You can only imagine if Sunderland don't go up then I think the big boys will come knocking next season.”

Sunderland are currently eight points adrift of the automatic promotion places, with 13 games left to take in. They appear well on course to secure at least a play-off spot, with the Championship’s top four beginning to break away from the rest of the chasing pack.