​Jude-fever. Bellingham-mania. No one has come up with a catchy name for it yet, but it’s happening. A London train stop called Bellingham station has been renamed “Jude Bellingham”. West Midlands Railway is offering free train rides for anyone named Jude. “Hey Jude” is on the playlist after every England win with “Three Lions” and “Wonderwall”, the only player with his own ballad.Only a couple of weeks ago, this World Cup felt like it would be Harry Kane’s tournament. It could yet be Kane’s pinnacle at the end of an extraordinary season of 72 goals and counting, a tally bettered only once, by Lionel Messi. If Messi is one of football’s deities then Kane is the greatest mortal to ever do it. Win the World Cup on Sunday and he will surely end the year on stage in Paris, wearing a shiny suit and holding a golden orb.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut increasingly this tournament looks like the World Cup of Jude Bellingham. It was his goal against Croatia that sparked England’s best 45 minutes so far, his goal against Panama that broke the deadlock, his rapid double that briefly silenced the Azteca, a feat in itself. Bellingham’s first goal in the quarter-final against Norway was a moment of elite technical skill amid a shower of incompetence, his second a display of heightened instincts that earned England a victory they scarcely deserved.A Thameslink station called Bellingham has been given a new forename (Reuters)Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane salute the fans after reaching the semi-finals (Martin Rickett/PA) (Martin Rickett/PA)And perhaps this tournament means even more to Bellingham, a player who has been publicly questioned and privately doubted by his own manager, who has been subjected to outside scrutiny unlike his teammates. “Don’t bring Jude,” ran a headline in the Daily Mail earlier this season, suggesting England would be better off without the “divisive soloist” at the World Cup.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s good to put some of the noise aside, and just show my country and my teammates how committed I am to helping us win football matches,” Bellingham said after scoring in England’s first game, the 4-2 win over Croatia in Dallas.It seems bizarre now, but one of the decisions Thomas Tuchel stewed over before that opening match – and throughout his 18-month reign – was whether Bellingham or Morgan Rogers should be his No 10 at the World Cup. Bellingham missed last September’s qualifiers after undergoing shoulder surgery and it was unfortunately timed. England played their best game under Tuchel, winning 5-0 in Serbia, in which Rogers was excellent.Tuchel omitted Bellingham from the following camp despite his return to fitness at Real Madrid. There was also the infamous line about Bellingham’s “repulsive” on-field behaviour, which Tuchel attributed to his mother and a slip of the tongue in his second language, and for which he later apologised.Tuchel felt Engl