Birmingham City's Jude Bellingham has revealed that Wayne Rooney was his hero growing up due to his performances for Manchester United and England.

Like Rooney, the Blues youngster has emerged on the scene as a 16-year-old, with Bellingham starring for his local side this season.

However, with the English leagues postponed for the foreseeable future, he has a lot of spare time on his hands and the teenager took to Instagram to do a Q&A with fans.

And, one asked Bellingham who is hero was growing up and he responded with a picture of Rooney.

The forward is a legend at United after winning every club trophy available over a 13-year period and he is also their all-time top scorer - a record he has for his country too.

Bellingham could follow in Rooney's footsteps by swapping his boyhood club for the Red Devils, with United known to be very keen on the midfielder after his performances in the Championship this season.

But, they face serious competition for his signature, with Borussia Dortmund also keeping tabs on the youngster.

QUIZ: Can you name the club these 14 ex-Birmingham City players are playing for now?

The verdict

Rooney is a legend in this country for all he has done in his career and it's natural that someone Bellingham's age would see him as a hero.

After all, he has won everything available in the club game and is England's record goalscorer - so he's not a bad player to look up to!

It will be interesting to see if this has any sort of influence on Bellingham's career though, as United will be hoping he wants to copy Rooney by playing for the Old Trafford club.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.