Brand Bellingham: How the brothers conquered football – and the fashion scene

Not since the Gallagher brothers have siblings made England feel quite so patriotic. With matching smiles, haircuts – and now England uniforms – Jude and his younger brother Jobe Bellingham are garnering attention from fans after Thomas Tuchel called up the younger sibling to join the senior squad as the Nations League continues.

“To have that chance of an opportunity to represent England with my brother, it’s really hard to put into words,” the 21-year-old said on the FA’s England app. “I don’t have the words, really. I think it’s only emotion that could describe it, and, hopefully, if that time does come, you’ll see a lot of emotion from people, and definitely from my family,” he added.

Both brothers were raised in the West Midlands by their dad Mark, a former police officer and prolific non-league footballer, and their Mum, Denise, who helps to manage finances and logistics in both brothers’ sporting careers. “Before being great parents, they’re great people,” Jude told The Guardian in 2020. “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,” he said of his parents, who reportedly separated in October last year after 20 years of marriage, though neither the Bellingham brothers, or Mark and Denise ever confirmed the split.

Both brothers came up through Birmingham City’s academy, with Jude signing for Borussia Dortmund in 2020 and Jobe heading to Sunderland in 2023, before following in his brother’s footsteps to western Germany in 2025, after Jude had left the club for Real Madrid two years prior.

As such, the family lived separately, with Denise moving to Spain to support Jude, where she reportedly lived in Madrid’s exclusive enclave “La Finca”, or “Spain’s Beverly Hills”, while Mark remained in the UK alongside Jobe during his time at Birmingham City and later Sunderland.

“I was perhaps being biased against Dortmund for a very long time, because I have anxieties and fears and you want to be your own man,” Jobe told DAZN of the move that mirrored his older brother’s at the time. “So for me, it was about choosing the right path, not necessarily a different one. I don’t think my path has been the same as Jude’s at all.”

Notably, although both Jobe and Jude are midfielders, their playing style is different, with the latter focused on surging forward to support the attack and score goals, and the former playing defensively, sitting deeper to control the tempo of the game and break up play. “He is here on his own merits,” Tuchel told reporters. “Strong on the ball, good physique, big body, very physical player and can keep possession.”

Both Bellingham brothers are still considered Birmingham City heroes. Craig Courtney, from the Tilton Talk fan podcast, told BBC Sport this month: “Fans loved the fact they both cared. They wore their hearts on their sleeves and helped Birmingham when we were fighting relegation. Even now, Jude and Jobe remember where it all started for them.”

But they are not just garnering attention for their footballing skill.

Helped along by their symmetrical faces and six-foot-plus stature, the fashion world has been similarly embracing the Bellingham brothers.

This month, it was revealed that Jude would be Vogue’s December cover star, following the player’s statuesque Calvin Klein underwear campaign, which sent the internet into pandemonium. With 56 million Instagram followers (and Jobe with 5 million and counting), it’s unsurprising that almost every brand is falling at his feet. In 2023, both brothers attended Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week show at Pont Neuf bridge, with Jude subsequently dubbed a “friend of the house”. “An honour,” he told Vogue.

“I do like being dressed up. It’s a nice change to the football stuff, for sure,” Jude added. It’s a change that’s unlikely to show signs of slowing, with both brothers tapped for major Adidas campaigns, and Jobe modelling for Guess and the German tailoring brand Søeren. It seems a joint fashion signing could be as imminent as Jobe’s England squad debut. Both brothers have developed impressive off-duty wardrobes, focused around elevated streetwear, crisp shirts and oversized silhouettes.

In 2025, sports business title Sportico estimated Jude’s off-pitch endorsement earnings alone totalled up to $15m, with his stock – presumably – only climbing during this summer’s World Cup tournament.

“Fans and brands are increasingly drawn towards players and not just the teams they play for,” a Spanish football executive told the Financial Times, who likened Brand Bellingham to the ever-alluring Brand Beckham.

“You want someone whose personality stands out above the rest. His celebration, his attitude, the way he carries himself both on and off the pitch,” they said of the elder brother’s supremely profitable appeal. “He has that unquantifiable thing that we call authenticity.”

Judging by what we’ve seen of Jobe so far – the training ground laughs and unguarded elation at his England selection – verity runs in the family and could prove to make both brothers a long-lasting fixture on the football and fashion scene, as the opportunity opens up to take over from newly internationally-retired stalwarts Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

“I want to improve my entire game, turn my strengths into superpowers,” Jobe said when he joined Borussia Dortmund last summer. “That’s a big goal for me because I want to be one of the best midfielders in Europe.”

These boys aren’t asking for much; just continental domination.

You can read The Independent’s full rundown of Jobe Bellingham’s football career ahead of England’s clash with Spain on Sunday night here.