England's Blues brothers - how the Bellinghams helped save Birmingham

It is six years since Jude Bellingham played his final game for Birmingham City, and three years since younger brother Jobe wore the club's shirt for the last time.

While Jude, 23, is establishing himself as a footballing great at European greats Real Madrid following a spell at Borussia Dortmund, Jobe, 21, is continuing his football education at his brother's former club in Germany after two seasons with Sunderland.

The Stourbridge-born midfielders have moved on with their careers.

Their memories, however, live on at St Andrew's, such was the impact the boyhood Birmingham fans made in the Championship.

On match days supporters stop and pose for photographs in front of Jude's mural outside the ground. Fans still turn up to matches wearing Bellingham shirts.

"They both had a real connection with fans," Craig Courtney, from the Tilton Talk fan podcast, told BBC Sport. "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."

The brothers played 70 league and cup games between them for Birmingham after graduating from the academy.

They have never appeared together in a senior match, however, as Jude - who joined Birmingham aged eight - had left by the time Jobe broke into the first team in 2022.

That could all change on Thursday.

The Bellinghams will become the first brothers to play for England for 19 years if Jobe wins his first cap and appears alongside Jude, a veteran of 60 appearances, in the Nations League game with Croatia at Wembley.

"It will be an incredibly proud moment for Birmingham City if that happens," said Courtney.

Jude is the youngest player in Birmingham's history after making his debut aged 16 years and 38 days in 2019.

Clubs across Europe were pursuing him when he signed his first professional contact in 2020 after turning 17 - a deal both he and Birmingham knew would never be fulfilled.

His actions, however, ensured Birmingham would receive a significant transfer fee when he left, and soon afterwards he joined Dortmund for an initial fee of £20m during the Covid-19 pandemic.

When he joined Real in 2023, Birmingham received a reported sell-on fee of at least £10m., external

"We cannot possibly imagine, without Jude's decision [to sign a contract], where we would be as a club in a pandemic like this," then Birmingham chief executive Xuandong Ren told BBC WM after Jude joined Dortmund.

"He could easily have just looked after himself and not the club, but he chose the best possible way to look after the club."

Jobe became the second youngest player to play for Birmingham when he made his debut in January 2022 aged 16 years and 107 days.

"This was a lad, regardless of who his brother was or what he was achieving, who would do anything to write his own success story," former Birmingham striker Troy Deeney, who played in the game when Jobe made his debut, told the Sun., external

"Everything he has achieved on the pitch, too, has come with an instant comparison to his older brother.

"He never got that one moment to enjoy something without someone, somewhere saying: 'Yeah, but what about Jude?'

"That only added to how strong he was mentally, and anyone who suggests he is where he is because of his last name is talking rubbish."

Deeney added: "What impressed me more than anything he had done on the pitch was his attitude - a hell-bent determination to get to the top and the common sense to take all the right steps along the way."

Jobe played 26 games before Sunderland paid £3m for him in 2023, with Birmingham receiving a reported £4m sell-on fee when he moved to Dortmund two years later.

Although significantly less than the fees generated by his brother, it was nevertheless welcome revenue.