{"id":802970,"date":"2026-07-16T01:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802970\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:34:26","slug":"football-superstar-jude-bellingham-accused-of-disgusting-act-following-englands-world-cup-loss-to-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802970\/","title":{"rendered":"Football superstar Jude Bellingham accused of \u2018disgusting\u2019 act following England\u2019s World Cup loss to Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">England superstar Jude Bellingham has been accused of slapping Argentina\u2019s Valentin Barco in the back of head following <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/soccer\/argentina-stun-england-in-pulsating-world-cup-semi-final-c-22584406\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">their World Cup semi-final thriller on Thursday morning<\/a> (AEST).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">After holding an early lead, <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/soccer\/argentina-stun-england-in-pulsating-world-cup-semi-final-c-22584406\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">England lost the pulsating encounter 2-1<\/a> and, as Argentina celebrated, a bitterly disappointed Bellingham appeared to whack Barco in the back of the head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The incident sparked a fiery end to the clash in Atlanta, and tense scenes followed as Barco\u2019s teammates turned on the Real Madrid star.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-h2mhmv-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">It was suggested by BBC Radio that Bellingham was earlier annoyed by Barco, who was seen running across to the England bench to celebrate their ticket to the World Cup final right in front of coach Thomas Tuchel and his players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">But fans were less than impressed with Bellingham, who already has a fickle relationship with many England supporters.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5afe1f322b8f31c993beb6634ba6703a95b8fcbc.jpg\" alt=\"Jude Bellingham and Valentin Barco face off after the match.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Jude Bellingham and Valentin Barco face off after the match. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThat Bellingham slap on Barco was disgusting,\u201d one fan raged on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe narrative would\u2019ve been completely different if it was an Argentina player doing that.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Another fan said: \u201cHorrible what Jude Bellingham did in the end. He hits Barco in the back with a sneak attack and totally without provocation. Sore loser doesn\u2019t even begin to cover it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Another said, \u201cThat is awful from Jude,\u201d  while another called it \u201cunprofessional\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Bellingham had been a star for England throughout the tournament, scoring six goals and one assist from their six matches, including braces against Mexico and Norway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He cut a seriously dejected figure after the semi-final loss to Argentina, and was clearly full of emotion after the final whistle blew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Bellingham is a polarising figure in the game, who is often called arrogant by fans due to his demeanour and attitude towards media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The fact that the 23-year-old left Birmingham City and competes in the Spanish football league (LaLiga), has also not endeared him to many English supporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ahead of the World Cup, the Daily Mail ran the headline, \u201cDon\u2019t bring Jude\u201d, calling Bellingham a \u201cdivisive soloist\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/soccer\/argentina-stun-england-in-pulsating-world-cup-semi-final-c-22584406\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Argentina come from behind and shatter England\u2019s World Cup dream<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/crash-vision-emerges-as-adelaide-crows-defender-josh-worrell-set-to-face-court-c-22583639\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Crash vision emerges as Crows defender faces nervous wait<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England superstar Jude Bellingham has been accused of slapping Argentina\u2019s Valentin Barco in the back of head following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,1625,3863,588,85,124617],"class_list":["post-802970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}