Jude Bellingham spent Friday evening exactly where his career began, back in the stands at St Andrew's, as Barcelona rolled into Birmingham for a pre-season friendly against the club that raised him.

ONE reports that the Real Madrid and England midfielder was pictured smiling among the crowd, drawing a warm reception from Birmingham City supporters who still regard him as one of their own, even six years after he left.

Bellingham is on his summer break following England's run to a bronze medal at the 2026 World Cup, and rather than staying away from a football pitch he chose to spend part of it revisiting the ground where his professional story started.

That story is well documented on both sides of the fixture. Bellingham joined Birmingham's academy at just seven years old and rose through the ranks until, in August 2019, he made his senior debut at 16 years and 38 days, becoming the youngest player ever to appear for the club.

He went on to make 44 appearances and score four goals in a single Championship season before Borussia Dortmund paid a reported €23 million to sign him in the summer of 2020, a fee that made him, at the time, the most expensive 17-year-old in football history.

Birmingham later retired his number 22 shirt, a gesture the club said was meant not simply to honour Bellingham but to hold him up as an example of talent, hard work and dedication for the academy players coming up behind him.

Barcelona, missing eight first-team players including Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo and Pau Cubarsí, used the friendly to give minutes to fringe and youth players under Hansi Flick, and it doubled as the first appearance for new signing Karim Adeyemi in Barcelona colours.

Birmingham, unbeaten in five warm-up matches under manager Chris Davies heading into the game, matched their illustrious visitors for large stretches of the contest.

The match finished 1-1, with August Priske putting Birmingham ahead in the 31st minute before Hamza Abdelkarim levelled from the penalty spot for Barcelona 11 minutes later, a fair result between a Championship side in form and the reigning La Liga champions fielding a much-changed line-up.

The occasion also revived a sliver of shared history between the two clubs: in 1960, Birmingham became the first English side to reach a European final, losing to Barcelona over two legs in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.