A childhood Leeds United hero eclipses a £25 million Englishman’s Championship total in the most recent Elland Road show.
The number of Championship minutes that Jude Bellingham, an England midfielder, and Real Madrid combined for in his rookie season with Birmingham City has been eclipsed by Leeds United prodigy Archie Gray.
In the Sky Bet Championship game between Leeds United and Leicester City at Elland Road on February 23, 2024, in Leeds, England, Archie Gray of Leeds United celebrates scoring his team’s second goal.
Gray overtook Bellingham in second place for the most league minutes by a player 17 years of age or less during a single Championship campaign over the previous 10 years after Friday’s victory over Leicester City. The player is Ryan Sessegnon of Tottenham Hotspur.
After breaking through at Birmingham City in 2019-20, Gray has now surpassed Bellingham with 2,707 league minutes played for Daniel Farke’s promotion-chasing Whites. Even though the Leeds teenager is still behind Sessegnon and won’t have a chance to surpass the former Fulham player’s 4,036-minute record before turning 18 next month, his most recent accomplishment is testament to the faith that both Farke and his teammates have in him.
Although Wout Faes’ own goal in the 3-1 victory over Leicester was unfairly, but appropriately, taken away from him to give Leeds the lead, Gray has made a noticeable impact on the team’s ascent to promotion. Supporters, Farke, and his more experienced teammates in the first squad have praised the 17-year-old for his poise and control at right-back and in center midfield at such a young age.
It’s somewhat amazing that Gray, whose professional debut was only at the start of the 2023–24 season, eclipsed Bellingham’s minute total despite playing for a team that still has the potential to earn promotion automatically. Despite opposition from veteran trio Luke Ayling, Djed Spence, and Connor Roberts—two of whom have already departed the club—he has managed to stay in the starting lineup ever since.
Shortly after turning 17, England international Bellingham left St. Andrew’s Stadium in the summer of 2020 to join Borussia Dortmund in a rumored £25 million deal. With 32 starts in the competition, he made 44 appearances during his breakthrough season, 41 of which were in the championship.In all competitions this season, Gray has made 36 appearances, starting 30 of his 32 championship games. It’s possible that Gray will make 50 appearances in his first season at Elland Road with 12 league games left, plus an extension to Leeds’ FA Cup run or play-off involvement.
But Gray signed a contract extension with Leeds earlier this year, extending his stay there until 2028, unlike Bellingham, whose future seemed certain before his record-breaking move to the Bundesliga. To the pleasure of United fans who chanted the young player’s name last Friday night, the England youth international’s connection to the team he played for as a child shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
Gray may still play left back or central midfield between now and the end of the season as Leeds pursue league leaders Leicester, whom they trail by six points, but he is anticipated to start at right back in Farke’s strongest lineup.