Bellingham: Henderson makes us all better

Jordan Henderson is in the England men’s squad for a joint-record seventh time in this summer’s tournament and for two of his younger midfield teammates, his value on and off the pitch is immense.

Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, among Thomas Tuchel’s attacking midfield options for the tournament opener against Croatia, say he’s one of the very first names they’d want in the squad each camp.

That’s not only for Henderson’s quality on the pitch, which led to captaining former club Liverpool to the Premier League and Uefa Champions League titles and now being a key part of Brentford’s top 10 finish in the PL this season.

Bellingham and Rogers spoke about Henderson’s influence, plus the attributes they admire most in each other’s game and growing up together in the West Midlands, on Episode Five of this summer’s series of Lions’ Den connected by EE.

On Henderson’s influence, Rogers said: “(He is) The best guy I’ve met in football. If you did a blind ranking of everyone they’d want at the England camp, he’d be in everyone’s top five.”

Bellingham said: “He’s so funny. He’s the funniest guy at this camp! He gets everyone laughing, he gets everyone together. If there’s ever an issue, where you’re 22, 23 and you’re not sure about addressing it, he’ll do it for you.

“If there’s a problem between two people he’ll bring them together.

“He’s got no ego when it comes to supporting the team. He’s a Champions League-winning captain, a Premier League-winning captain. He’s doing the sets for the finishes yesterday. He doesn’t have to do that. He doesn’t have to be that humble.

“Every day in training, he’s relentless in wanting to be better, in pushing everyone else to be better. He drives the intensity up.

“For us inside, he’s the first name on the team sheet.”