To ruin a child – arrogance of Bellingham’s parents

The club will say: nothing serious. The media will reply: yeah, right. Because in Germany, people really aren’t used to the kind of behavior shown by Jobe Bellingham’s parents—his father Mark above all—after Borussia Dortmund’s visit to St. Pauli.

Bellingham senior, who also acts as Jobe’s advisor, was not at all pleased that Niko Kovac substituted his son after just the first half. A pretty poor half for his son, to be fair. Dortmund led 1–0 at the break, but the match ended 3–3.

Still, that isn’t the main point here—the subject is the parents of famous footballers. Some simply cannot control themselves, and Mark seems to be one of them. German media quickly reported that Mark Bellingham went down to the locker room at halftime. First, to console his son—which is fine—but then also to argue with sporting director Sebastian Kehl, which of course is not fine.

On top of that, Bellingham senior didn’t just reproach Kehl for Kovac’s decision to sub Jobe off, but also for the overall performance of the team. “He didn’t hide his opinion,” Bild diplomatically wrote, noting that Mark Bellingham even requested a private meeting with Niko Kovac.

Naturally, the club will insist that the whole incident wasn’t that serious—especially since Jobe himself did nothing wrong. But Kehl soon came forward to clarify the situation.

“That area will remain reserved for players, coaches, and management—not for family or advisors. This will not happen again, and we’ve made that very clear to everyone involved,” Dortmund’s sporting director said firmly.

Chief executive Lars Ricken, the club’s top official, shared the same view.

“I wasn’t present, but we won’t make this an even bigger issue by commenting further. That said, I want to stress that only players, coaches, and club staff are allowed in front of the locker rooms,” Ricken stated, adding that Jobe even came to Dortmund thanks to the good relationship between the Bellingham family and the club dating back to Jude’s time at the Westfalenstadion, before his move to Real Madrid.

“The family flew in especially for this game to watch Job’s Bundesliga debut and wanted to see him after the match. They stopped in the corridor on the way to the dressing room and had an emotional conversation with Sebastian. But given the trust in their relationship, there was nothing problematic about it. By today, everything is already resolved.”

And it was resolved by making it clear to Mark Bellingham: you don’t belong in the dressing room—or even in front of it.