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Former Non-League footballer and policeman Mark Bellingham, whose 21-year-old son signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2023 for a potential £112million, owns a firm with net assets which hit £8.1million
As England’s star man, Jude Bellingham is used to bagging goals on the pitch.
Now his agent dad has proven he has the golden touch off the football field — by amassing an £8million fortune. Ex-policeman Mark Bellingham, whose 21-year-old son signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2023, owns a firm which has netted the sum.
Belloball Ltd’s net assets have soared from £728,836 to £8.1million in just a year, according to records filed with Companies House. Financial statements for the year to the end of March 2024 show the company had net assets of £8.1million.
It is not known precisely how the money was made. But in the same year the statements cover, as well as Jude’s transfer to the Spanish giants from Borussia Dortmund, his younger brother – 19-year-old Jobe – made the switch from Birmingham City to Sunderland.
Mark Bellingham – who used to be a sergeant for West Midlands Police – is the sole director and shareholder of Belloball Ltd, with Jude’s mum Denise, 57, the company secretary. The firm’s “nature of business” is listed as “other sports activities”.
Midfielder Jude finished third in last year’s prestigious Ballon d’or, which recognises the world’s best footballers. In England’s Euro 2024 run to defeat in the final, he scored a stunning overhead kick in injury-time to keep the national side’s hopes alive in a nail-biting last-16 tie against Slovakia.
But while the talented player is now used to gracing the turf at the Bernabeu, his dad was more accustomed to playing for the likes of Stourbridge and Leamington as a prolific non-league goalscorer. Indeed, Jude has described his dad, 48, as his “first hero”, recalling watching him in earlier days.
In 2021, Birmingham City academy product Jude – who has six goals in 40 senior caps for the Three Lions – said: “When you go and watch him play every week in non-League, you know it’s not the Premier League or anything, but seeing the way that he played and the atmosphere, it made me fall in love with football so he was probably my first hero.
“After the first few times of going, I’d start to pay a bit more attention to the games and stuff, the atmosphere and he’s scoring goals so you see him celebrating and stuff like that – you want that to be me. Growing up, he’d always give me tips on what I could do and now it gets to a certain age and it sort of flips and that’s brilliant because we have that sort of relationship like father and son and then as I got older, like coach and player.”
In 2020, Jude spoke in glowing terms about his mum and dad. He told the Guardian: “Before being great parents they’re great people. I’ve grown up around them and seen the way they interact with other people, seen the way they treat people. When you have people like that, you don’t have to be told how to behave, you pick that up from them.
“Both are working-class and filled me with the things you need to get along. You can take those lessons in your personal life and social life, but also into football: not giving up, working hard and if you want something, putting in the graft to go and get it.”
In 2023, it was reported Mark Bellingham had passed an exam to be on a global list of football agents published by Fifa. He also appears on a list of FA registered football agents as of 20 December.
Bellingham senior was contacted for comment.
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