All About Soccer Stars Jude and Jobe Bellingham's Parents, Denise and Mark Bellingham

Jude and Jobe Bellingham’s parents, Denise and Mark Bellingham, have always encouraged their sons.

Jude is a Champions League winner with Real Madrid in Spain and a Euro 2020 and 2024 runner-up with England, while younger brother Jobe plays regularly for Sunderland in the Championship, the second-tier of English soccer.

The two have Denise and Mark to thank for plenty of support and encouragement over the years. It’s something Jude has acknowledged himself, telling The Guardian in 2020, “Before being great parents they’re great people. I’ve grown up around them and seen the way they interact with other people, seen the way they treat people. When you have people like that, you don’t have to be told how to behave, you pick that up from them."

“Both are working-class and filled me with the things you need to get along. You can take those lessons in your personal life and social life, but also into football: not giving up, working hard and if you want something, putting in the graft to go and get it," he added.

From their own lives to the sacrifices they made for their sons, here’s everything to know about Jude and Jobe Bellingham’s parents, Denise and Mark Bellingham.

Mark and Denise raised their sons in the West Midlands

Mark is originally from Southend-on-Sea in the south of England, but he moved to the West Midlands. He and Denise raised Jude and Jobe in Stourbridge, near Birmingham.

Jude was born in 2003 and Jobe was born in 2005. They remained in the area as Jude signed for Birmingham City’s under-eights team after playing for Stourbridge Juniors.

Mark was a police officer and is now a soccer agent

Mark attended the University of Wolverhampton and worked as a sergeant for West Midlands Police. After leaving the police, he’s became a soccer agent for his sons, per The Evening Standard, and helps manage their careers.

When Jude left Birmingham City, a number of English teams including Manchester United wanted to buy him, but Mark and Denise felt that it would be better for him to continue his career away from the Premier League. Likewise, when he left Borussia Dortmund, it was decided that Real Madrid would provide him with better opportunities.

Former soccer player Kevin Betsy, who coached Jude when he played for England youth teams, said of Mark and Denise to The Evening Standard, “They wanted regular football in a really good league, to get him first-team exposure in high-pressure situations.”

He said about Mark, “He was very, very clear with how he wanted support and communication. He comes from the police background, so he's very clear and concise, very disciplined, and that reflects on Jude and Jobe”.

Mark played soccer himself

Mark never played professional soccer, but had a prolific career as a forward lower down the leagues in the English soccer system, scoring over 700 goals in his career.

He began with the team Catholic United in Southend, and went on to play for teams including West Midlands Police, Stourbridge, Cheltenham Town and Newport County. He told The Non-League Paper in 2016, “Most of the 700 were from not very far out so I think I owe my team-mates over the years a lot more than they owe me. I'm 40 now so I think this season will probably be my last. I'm playing veterans' football a bit more on Sundays and my eldest son is now playing for Birmingham U16s — maybe it's time to finally step away.”

From 2008 to 2009, he scored 48 goals in one season to help Leamington get promoted, and his coach at the time, Jason Cadden, told BirminghamLive how Mark would juggle his soccer with his police work, saying, “Evening games, the full-time whistle would blow and you’d see Mark sprint off the pitch. He’d jump in the shower, get in his car and start his police shift at 10pm. To juggle his job, his family life and yet still do what he did on the pitch — it’s full credit to him as a person, really. And he played into his forties!”

Jude told The Guardian in 2020, “I used to watch him play all the time; it’s where I started to get that love for football. I think you can see in the way I play that I’ve watched the game from a young age. That non-league style of toughness and being gritty when you need to be is reflected in my game, and I do think that comes from watching my dad play — even though he never tackled!”

Denise moved to Germany and Spain with Jude while Mark stayed in the U.K. with Jobe

When Jude left Birmingham City to move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany, Denise moved with him. Mark stayed at home with Jobe, who was still playing for Birmingham City at the time. Jude said about Denise during his unveiling at Real Madrid, “Without my mum, sometimes I'd get too low with the lows or too high with the highs and I stay pretty humble because I've got her around. It's also great to have her there because she's a great laugh as well. We get on so well and we're always doing stuff together.”

Betsy said about Denise to The Evening Standard, “Like most mothers, Denise is very caring. She understood the rollercoaster of emotions that come with being a child in an academy where the journeys are very up and down.”

When Jobe moved to Sunderland in 2023, Mark moved to the north of England with him. When Jobe made his 50th professional appearance in a soccer game, Mark highlighted his success at his age on social media, writing, “Fifty first-team appearances as a second-year scholar. It's a decent start,” via talkSPORT.

Mark and Denise sacrificed a lot for their sons

Both Mark and Denise had to make sacrifices for their sons to develop their careers and it’s not sometimes that goes unappreciated.

Jude told TNT Sports that he got emotional after winning the Champions League final with Real Madrid in 2024, saying, “I was alright until I was up in my mum's and dad's face... and my little brother who I'm trying to be a role model for. The amount of nights where they could be at home at 7pm but instead they're doing trips at 11, 12 at night to take me to football.”

He told The Football Association in 2021, “My family are massive for me, but with COVID-19, it's been a bit split … With all the travel restrictions, it's been hard to see them but when we do it's been brilliant. They're the biggest thing in my life. My mum keeps me grounded, she's always there for me and I can't thank her enough for everything she's done for me.”

Betsy told The Evening Standard, “They were very keen on their child living at home in Birmingham, training in close proximity to their home, to allow him to have as normal a childhood as possible, that was really important. They could have gone to many of the top clubs in Europe when Jude was 12 or 13, but they resisted those ideas — the teenage years with your child are important.”

Mark and Denise support their sons

When Jude was unveiled at Real Madrid after signing for the club, he said, “The role my mum is playing is massive. It is probably the biggest role of anyone, more than my coaches and managers.”

He told The Guardian in 2020, when he was living in Dortmund, that Denise would still cook for him, and was apparently teased by his England team-mates after revealing that she’d still make his bed for him.

Betsy told The Evening Standard that Mark and Denise encouraged Jude to take his education seriously as well as his soccer. He said, “It was fundamental to them that education was a huge part of his life, they were very strong on that. If there was ever a sign of any problems at school, with either behavior or dropping academic grades, he wouldn’t be playing football.”

They were interested in his sports career too. Betsy added, “They wanted an open communication, making sure that our plan was clear to them on why Jude was selected for this particular camp, what he would be getting out of that camp, what was our plan, long term within the England pathway. And those types of questions are not always asked by a high percentage of parents.”

After the Champions League final, soccer manager Jose Mourinho, who was helping cover the game for TNT Sports, said: “Special player, special family. To see that family, the way they are there, they are not looking for cameras, they are not looking for the VIP seats, they are just there to support their kid in the most humble way.

Jude credits Mark with helping him “fall in love” with soccer

Jude has said that it’s Mark who made him interested in sports, particularly as he’d go and watch him play as a child. He told The Football Association, “We talk about footballing heroes, and my dad was like my first. When you go and watch him play every week in non-league, you know it's not the Premier League or anything, but seeing the way that he played and the atmosphere, it made me fall in love with football so he was probably my first hero.”

He continued, “After the first few times of going, I’d start to pay a bit more attention to the games and stuff, the atmosphere and he's scoring goals so you see him celebrating and stuff like that - you want that to be me.

"Growing up, he'd always give me tips on what I could do and now it gets to a certain age and it sort of flips and that's brilliant because we have that sort of relationship like father and son and then as I got older, like coach and player," Jude added.

Jude often posts about his parents on social media

Jude frequently posts photos of Mark and Denise on social media.

He celebrated Real Madrid being crowned La Liga champions in May 2024 with a photo of himself embracing Denise at the team’s stadium. Before that, in December 2023, he uploaded a series of photos from the family’s Christmas, writing, “Christmas break well spent.”

In 2019, when Jude signed his scholarship contract at Birmingham City, he shared a photo of himself with his family and captioned a post, “A big thanks to my family, team mates and members of staff that have done so much to get me this far.”