Bellamy has enjoyed an excellent start to his first senior managerial tenure.
He is unbeaten in his six matches to date, leading Wales to promotion to the Nations League’s top division last year by winning their group, which also effectively guaranteed them at least a play-off for World Cup qualification.
The aim is to seal their place in the tournament automatically. After Saturday’s match against Kazakhstan, Wales visit North Macedonia on Tuesday, while Belgium and Liechtenstein also lie in wait.
Wales qualified for their first World Cup in 64 years in 2022 but were desperately disappointing as they exited at the group stage in Qatar.
Bellamy has set his players the target of not only qualifying for the 2026 World Cup but giving a better account of themselves when they get there – to add their names to the pantheon of greats who have graced this hallowed competition.
“I remember the 1986 World Cup massively. I think the first game I remember was England against Poland and [Gary] Lineker scored a hat-trick,” Bellamy, 45, recalls.
“We used to go to Spain and I had a Lineker shirt. I pulled away from that because I always wanted an Argentina one with Maradona.
“1990 I really enjoyed, but it wasn’t a great World Cup. We saw the emergence of Roberto Baggio, but then Toto Schillaci took over like an unknown. There was also the emergence of Cameroon. I would say that was a good World Cup but the most important one for me was 1994 in the USA.
“It was amazing because I wanted an Italy-Brazil final. There was something about Romario. I just thought it would be his World Cup. I watched Brazil every game. They were more conservative than other Brazilian teams, but I still think they had that quality.
“That World Cup, at the time as a kid, I wasn’t sure which way I wanted to go. Did I want to be with my friends mostly? I knew that path wasn’t going to take me to being a footballer. I think spending a month watching nearly every game. It was ‘give me that, I want to be a footballer’.”
Bellamy went on to reach the top of the club game but, despite counting the likes of Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale as international team-mates, Wales never got close to reaching a World Cup during his career.
“I’ve got to be honest, we weren’t good enough to qualify,” he says. “I never thought we were ever a team that was going to be able to qualify. Even if we had all the luck in the world, we still didn’t have enough quality, I don’t feel.”
Fortunately, Bellamy feels differently about the current squad.
“I see a lot more, and they proved that they’ve done it before. That helps because they’ve got experience of qualifying,” he adds.
“I just want to win this group but I can’t look that far ahead. I know you would love me to be able to say that but, I think if I live in the real world, it’s one step at a time. It really is that because otherwise you get so overwhelmed and you can miss the point of what this is. Kazakhstan is most important.”
