Jude Bellingham vs Erling Haaland: Who Ya Got, Taylor Twellman???

The World Cup is over, which means the next question is already here: who carries the sport between now and the next one? Rich put Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland in front of Taylor Twellman and asked him to choose.

Twellman chose, and the reasoning is more interesting than the pick.

He started by clearing out the field. Kylian Mbappé is not going anywhere, and the résumé speaks for itself. Twenty-two goals across three World Cups, 18 of them in the last two. "We know who Kylian Mbappé is," Twellman said. "His star will still remain the same."

He also gave credit to Michael Olise of France, whose star shined bright in this tournament. Just not bright enough.

"But not brighter than Jude Bellingham or Erling Haaland," Twellman said.

Messi is out of the equation entirely. Twellman said flatly there is no way he plays in the next World Cup at 43, and if he does, it becomes a story more astronomical than anything he has already done.

So it comes down to two, and Twellman gave the nod to Bellingham. Part of that is the English factor. Since 2018, England have lived on the brink of it coming home, on the brink of a major trophy, and never quite arrived. Harry Kane, in Twellman's estimation, probably has one more major tournament left in his prime before the math turns on him at 37 by 2030.

That leaves Bellingham as the vessel.

"I think he's unbelievable," Twellman said. "I think the fact that he's playing at Real Madrid as an English player instead of going to the Premier League, it's massive."

Haaland may win the statistical argument. Twellman thinks Bellingham wins the gravity argument. "I think he flips the game to whatever team he's playing for on his side," he said, and predicted that a Bellingham at Real Madrid for the foreseeable future is what finally gets England into the conversation for real hardware.

Then Rich brought up the moment from the third-place game that made the case better than any analysis could.

Bellingham handed off a penalty kick so a teammate could complete a hat trick. In doing so, he passed up the chance to become the first English player with seven goals in a World Cup. Then he went and scored anyway, on a run from midfield that Rich said had him screaming at the television.

Twellman's read on the giveaway went a layer deeper, and it had teeth.

Bukayo Saka did not play in the semifinal, with Tuchel citing concern about injury. Saka then played 90-plus minutes in the third-place game and scored a hat trick.

"What am I missing here?" Twellman said.

So the penalty was not only generosity. It was a message.

"For Jude to give that to him, that's leadership, but that's also a hey, hey guy over there. He should have played," Twellman said. "There's something about him that you can't quantify with Jude Bellingham that I love, and I would want him on my team nine out of 10 times."

None of which means Haaland is invisible. Rich reported a sighting from Santa Monica Boulevard, where a billboard for a very nice watch now features Haaland, hair down, looking like a man who has never once worn that watch.

That did not happen a month ago. Which is sort of the whole point.

Rich compared the look to Mad Martigan from "Willow," a reference Twellman correctly called amazing, before the show remembered that T.J. had already landed on Carl from "Die Hard" for the same hair. On this program, that is the higher honor.