Borussia Dortmund star, Jude Bellingham was highly impressed with the performance of West Ham United’s skipper, Declan Rice. The midfielder was one of the star performers in the Three Lions’ victory over Italy on Thursday night.
Rice scored the opening goal for England on his 40th cap as they went on to record a win against the Azurri for the first time in 62 years.
After the game, the 24-year-old posted a picture of him on his Instagram page. The picture showed him celebrating just his third goal for the national team with the caption, “no better feeling”.
Bellingham then responded to the post and commented, “what a player,” to which Rice replied “superstarrr [sic].”
Former Three Lions midfielder, Joe Cole also waxed lyrical about Rice’s impressive display.
Cole, who won the Intertoto Cup and FA Youth Cup with West Ham during his playing career. He made 187 appearances for the club after graduating from the academy.
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Cole claimed that Rice was visibly the best player on the field at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
“Declan was magnificent tonight, best player on the pitch by a mile,” Cole told Channel 4.
“He took his goal well, terrible defending from the Italians who let Harry Kane drift to that far post, get his shot off, and Dec’s just alive to it.
“If that’s a centre forward doing that we’re talking about instinct and natural ability. He keeps it down, good connection into the ground and it’s enough.
“He was outstanding from start to finish tonight, he really was, and it might get lost because obviously Harry Kane’s the story, but he [Rice] was brilliant.”
