2Jude Bellingham heads England in front on 13 minutesCredit: Reuters

2Bellingham produced his trademark celebrationCredit: EPA

But now we’re beyond all that. Bellingham is beyond comparison with any other player who has worn the Three Lions in the last half-century.

If you’re old enough to have seen Bobby Charlton or Stanley Matthews then have a chat among yourselves.

But watching Bellingham is more like witnessing Muhammad Ali or Tiger Woods in their pomp.

A man who is so much better than anyone else he is competing with – and with the self-awareness to know it.

If Bellingham didn’t have such swaggering arrogance, he wouldn’t be the game-changer he is.

His thumping early header set up an opening-night victory over Serbia just as his thumping early header had set up a thrashing of Iran in the first match of England’s World Cup campaign in Qatar.

It was a classic centre-forward’s goal. But then Bellingham can be a centre-forward, he can be a No10, he can play on the left, he can play deep. This fella has more guises than Mr Benn.

Still a fortnight shy of his 21st birthday, Bellingham is the on-field leader of Gareth Southgate’s England team.

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He’s their best passer, their best ball-winner, their best creator and since moving to Real Madrid, he’s challenging Harry Kane for the mantle of England’s best finisher too.

There has been debate about moving Bellingham from a No10 role to accommodate Phil Foden, the Footballer of the Year and Premier League perma-champion who rarely sparkles for England.

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But you build teams around Bellingham; everyone else falls into line.

England were not entirely convincing here – Kane was largely a spectator, Foden was unimpressive and Serbia gave their defence some nervy moments.

Yet they won their opening match of a tournament for a fourth consecutive time under Southgate – and they are as good as through to the knock-out stages as a result.

Gelsenkirchen was the place where Rooney stamped, Cristiano Ronaldo winked, England lost another penalty shoot-out and the Wag circus packed up and left town at the 2006 World Cup.

But the bad old days of the ‘Golden Generation’. England are a serious team under Southgate.

Much of the optimism surrounding their chances seemed to have dissipated in recent weeks.

Harry Maguire used to be seen as a problem but no Harry Maguire was a bigger problem still.

Southgate’s excessive loyalty to his favourites had been holding England back but when he axed several of those favourites, his squad lacked experience.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was too good not to play but then when he turned up in central midfield there were questions over his lack of gametime in the engine room.

Still, all the fretting since the friendly defeat by Iceland had not taken into account one thing – England are a different team when Bellingham is playing.

He takes a sad song and makes it better, as England’s supporters sang with their mass rendition of ‘Hey Jude’ after his goal.

England’s fans had colonised the vast majority of the 62,000-capacity Veltins Arena, there had been a blast of Football’s Coming Home in the warm-up and the traditional booing of national anthems and then we were off.

Southgate’s team were patient for 13 minutes, pawing at their opponents, casing the joint.

It all felt too slow – but then Kyle Walker thrusted a pass through the inside-right channel, Bukayo Saka darted on to and his deflected cross was met by a thumping close-range header from Bellingham, who had timed his charge perfectly.