#hendo

Litterally melts my brain to see all three of them together on opposing sides

it would be very pleasing to me if you could discuss hendo x jude's dynamic. like i would be overjoyed. i adore them, but also, what AREEE they? like how did they get so close? what keeps them close??? okay bye <3

hello!! i'd be absolutely delighted to - hendo x jude's dynamic is truly one of the most intriguing current eng nt relationships to me!! let's delve in… :)

Jude Bellingham and Jordan Henderson Masterpost 🤍

- First meeting and Jude's England debut

jude and jordan first met properly for the first time when jude received his first senior england call-up and england debut in november 2020 at the tender age of 17! jordan told ITV:

"The first time I met [Bellingham], the thing that stood out to me, of course I knew how good he was as a footballer when I was training with him, but the thing that stood out to me was his mentality. It was just different to anything I've seen before."

jude shined in his first competitive start for england with jordan alongside him in midfield where england beat andorra 4-0 in the 2022 world cup qualifiers! again, jordan had nothing but praise for him as we can see in this article ("He is miles ahead of me when I was that age," said Henderson.)

in the quote below from the article we can clearly see the beginnings of a mentorship forming with jordan wanting to help jude out from day one :) he was already sure that jude was going to play a key part in the 2022 qatar world cup!

"I was trying to help as much as I could but to be honest he is a top player who has shown that in the big games for Dortmund. I see him going from strength to strength all the time."

- 2022 Qatar World Cup

both jude and jordan were called up by england for the 2022 world cup! and jude immediately lived up to all the hype by scoring england’s opening goal of the tournament (a header from luke shaw’s cross) in the 6–2 group-stage win over iran, becoming one of england’s youngest ever world cup goalscorers!

the most prominent moment of all, however, certainly comes from jude and jordan's amazing linkup play to score against senegal in the round of 16 where they started the game together and formed a midfield partnership.

this led to perhaps one of the most iconic celebrations of recent england nt history (see below), where they pressed their foreheads together and very intensely stared into each other's eyes...

here's six more angles just to do the moment justice...

they also went in for, uh, more? once the team had reached them to celebrate too

to say this moment is at least a little homoerotically charged is to say the least... gay news outlets picked up on it left, right and centre! espeically with lgbtq+ rights at the forefront of the conversation this world cup with it being held in qatar which holds several homophobic laws.

one of my most vivid memories of watching this world cup WAS this goal and celebration because i watched jordan running over to jude to celebrate and them getting closer and closer and closer and i was thinking... surely not... and then they did!! and i think my friend spoke for the whole of england when she burst out: 'i thought they were going to KISS!!!!'

according to jude in this vid, the celebration was 'completely off the cuff' and wasn't pre-planned or anything! he was actually pretty surprised himself but thought the celebration was 'iconic':

“To be honest, he got so close and I was thinking is this is what we are going to do, we have to commit don’t we! So I went and he went really hard, proper hard! That’s why my back is arched because I’m thinking ‘he’s proper hard here and he’s proper close’. I just had to turn a bit, lean forward and get into a bit of a more comfortable position. It was a good moment. It’s something that lives forever, those kind of celebrations, and hopefully people will be talking about it for a long time.”

it definitely became a memorable moment of the world cup for the england team! here's jordan and trent recreating the moment on jude's bereal lol.

jordan's best football friend, adam lallana (ex-liverpool player) posted a photo of their celebration to his ig with the caption, 'Master & apprentice 🔥🔥🔥🔥', again alluding to the mentor-like role jordan seems to have adopted for jude. jordan thinks he and jude are 'cut from the same cloth' :)

jude also took the opportunity to massively praise jordan whilst the spotlight was on the two of them (some ppl didn't believe he deserved his spot on the squad). jude tweeted four photos of jordan’s goal with the caption: "Put some respect on his name." - he obviously thinks very highly of jordan and rates him as a player! when asked about it, he said:

"I’ve seen some of the rubbish said about him, it’s ridiculous - he’s so underrated technically," Bellingham said of his fellow midfielder after the game. "It’s about time he gets a bit of praise.”

when england got knocked out in the quarter finals against france, jude took it pretty hard and jordan was there to comfort him <3.

jude has since spoken out about how helpful it is to have older players like jordan on the team ("You learn to learn from their pain, if you like.") and has said himself how jordan is a role model to him!

'When I speak to Hendo, who I'm really close with, he tells me how lucky I am to be in this squad with such a good environment, whereas it was a bit different when he was playing at the start.' 'I try and listen to him a lot because of the role model that he is to me. And he has properly helped me coming into this squad and helped me manage that expectation and responsibility.'

- Jude to Liverpool rumours

so, this is a whole saga that was unfolding simultaneously with the 2022 world cup. with jude's contract with dortmund coming to an end and jude continuing to impress at both club and international level, it was the talk of the tournament where he'd end up.

liverpool was one of the most prominent in the mix, with liverpool fans being very vocal and enthusiatic about him signing. jude's close relationship, not only with jordan, but with trent alexander-arnold too, certianly did not help to quash any of those rumours, and they were constantly asked about it during the world cup. many fans joked they were playing the roles of 'agent trent' and 'agent jordan' to get jude to go come to liverpool with them.

this specualtion from fans probably did have some sort of truth to it. jordan and trent certainly would have answered any questions jude may've had and definitely liked the idea! according to conor coady, who was also called up at the 2022 world cup camp:

"I think Henderson and Trent tried with Jude, at the World Cup - 100%. They were man-marking the life out of him!" "[At team dinners] they were either side of him. We'd be sitting there and they were talking about how good Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp is."

the three of them definitely spent a lot of time together during the wc! although, ultimately all the rumours and speculation turned out to be false, and jude signed with real madrid not long after.

- England Camp + Social Media

jordan, jude and trent continued to be called up together consistently for international duty for the next year or so, disregarding injuries. but even when jude was injured he made an appearance at st. george's park to do some rehab and catch up with them!

they hung out 24/7, jude and jordan were very touchy-feely, and also consistently liked each other's posts and comment even when off england camp!

if you haven't noticed yet... the '🫡' is very much a thing™ for them!! they have their own little england nt 'clique', along with james maddison as well, seemingly known as the 'sheriffs'. which i think stems from one time they played mafia with the team and they were all sheriffs together and won (???). they always sit together on the team bus (madders: 'sheriff's come together, mate.' :')

but yeah, this has been a consistent little inside thing the four of them have continued to do into the present day! cute!

- Jordan is left out of Euros 2024 Squad :(

jude is called up for the euros 2024 but jordan is not! this was likely the result of jordan playing his club football in the not very challenging saudi football league before moving to ajax, whereas other england wc call ups had been playing consistent high-level european football.

this article also makes a great point that 'The rise of Bellingham has of course played a part in Henderson being sidelined at international level.' because they are both midfielders and jude is the direct usurper of jordan's role for england. but despite this, jordan doesn't appear to have let this sour their relationship!

jordan's pal, adam lallana talks about his surprise at jordan not being included, as well as jude and jordan's relationship in this article, again putting jordan in a 'mentor' role, and how inseparable the two still are when at england camps together!

"For example, Trent is someone who confides in Jordan, and Jude is extremely close to him. He almost sees him as a mentor. During my time as a coach with England Under-21 last season, I would regularly meet Jordan for a coffee and a catch-up at St George’s Park. Jude would always be with him. Their relationship was quite striking to see."

obviously there wasn't a lot of hendo x jude content from this tournament due to jordan not being called up, but jude showed his continued support whilst away with england for the euros, commenting 'My brother' on one of jordan’s ajax posts and they continued liking each other's posts!

- Tuchel calls up Jordan again!

with southgate stepping down as england manager and tuchel stepping in, we saw the return of quite a few familiar faces to international callups... including jordan!! here's jude and jordan reuniting at sgp after being apart for a long time (soft, gentle, lingering hug and touches!! no 'bro' pats here!) <3

they were right back to being stuck at each other's sides, as it should be. jude made sure to include a pic of him and jordan in his photo dump and jordan posted the pic too! jude's comment :')

- Jobe Bellingham plays for Sunderland

for the 24/25 season, jude's younger brother, jobe, played in the championship for sunderland... jordan's hometown and first club!!

jordan and jude have both been very vocal of their support for jobe and sunderland this season, commenting and liking his posts etc. !!

i think it's clear that jordan has definitely met and spoken to jobe in some capacity, maybe before he joined sunderland, with this being their common link other than jude 🥰(jobe has jordan come up in this tiktok ranking midfielders and he says ‘hendo’s some boy though.’ and ‘he knows i don’t mean that’ when he has to rank him 9th lol) although we didn't have any evidence of them actually interacting, until...

jobe helps sunderland win the championship playoffs and secure promotion to the premier league! jordan was in attendence of course, and i was soooo, so hopeful of a sunderland win (for jobe ofc, but also because i knew the chances of getting that jobe x hendo photo was higher than they'd basically ever be) and lo and behold !!!

i was soooo, happy you don't understand lol. such a shame jobe is leaving, i would have loved to have seen him in action in the preimier league and seen more of jordan's support! ❤️🤍

- Spanish GP 2025 Date

okay, so it wasn't a date, date technically... the rest of the team were there too but - they didn't seperate from each other the WHOLE TIME!! here they are strolling the paddock and watching the race at mercedes together:

and then here they are in the garages together... FLIRTING. (jude saying jordan would be a good f1 driver then proceeding to laugh at him like he's the funniest man alive) ugh, i'm so sick of them <3333

jude also made sure to wish jordan a happy birthday the week after! firstly, 'skip' 🥹🥹 despite jordan not having been jude's captain for, like, years probably. secondly, 'love ya❤' !!!

i just love them. they very obviously enjoy each other's company sooo much and value and respect each other a lot!!

so that brings us up to date with the hendo x jude lore!! (for now...) <3

jordan is someone jude has always looked up to and respected massively. and i think jordan saw how much pressure was already being placed on 17 year old jude’s shoulders and decided to take him under his wing.