Coventry woman wins £250,000 thanks to Jude Bellingham's Euro 2024 wondergoal

A Coventry woman has won £250,000 thanks to Jude Bellingham's Euro 2024 wondergoal. Joanne Gordon, who is 50, won the jackpot prize on ITV Picks.

The free-to-play competition sees players answer seven questions about a European Championship match, including the first goalscorer, half-time and full-time correct score. Joanne became the first ever ITV Picks jackpot winner after England’s round of 16 game against Slovakia, with Bellingham’s overhead kick sealing the deal late into stoppage time.

Joanne’s predictions incredibly included picking the exact minute that the first goal would be scored – the 25th.

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She said: “I don’t really know how to put it into words, it’s extremely surreal. You hear about people winning big amounts of money and you think, 'good for them' you know, I’ll try and win myself and you never really consider that it might happen.

“My husband plays it as well, he’s the avid football watcher in my house with my son. He’s quite scientific about it, making notes about how they’re performing, and then says: 'alright Jo, what are you picking?' and I say, 'oh whatever, the 25th minute will do'.”

Recounting how events unfolded, Joanne said: “We’d been out for a family party for my daughter’s birthday and when we got home the match was still playing. I was in the background and my husband was watching it and looking at my ITV Picks selections.

"He was screaming at the TV about the corners, because at that point the first goal time, the half-time score and other bits and pieces had all matched up. And then it just went into a real kind of surreal, other-worldly kind of thing, we realised how important the Jude Bellingham goal was.

“And then we had to go out again. We thought at that point we had won, but we weren’t 100% sure, so as we were going out, I thought I’d just login on my phone and have a look and I saw the leaderboard, and my name, and the amount, and I said to myself 'no, this isn’t real'.

“I said to Barry, my husband, 'pull over', he said 'I can’t! I’m driving along the dual carriageway; I can’t pull over!'

“We were just coming up to a garage, so we pulled in and were both looking at it like, 'this just isn’t real', and he put it into words this morning, it was like the Only Fools and Horses sketch where they go to the auction house and they’re jumping around in the car, and that was precisely us, I mean anyone driving past must’ve thought, 'what an earth is going on?'

“It still hasn’t really sunk in. It still feels not real.”

The family’s simple message to Jude Bellingham is one being shared in homes up and down the country: “Thank you.”

“We’ve already decided we’re going to give each of the children some money to set them up, but it’s still not sunk in really. You say to yourself you can now afford to do this, that and the other, or even have a holiday, because a holiday wasn’t even on the cards for us this year.”

Joanne’s full picks were:

Half time score – England 0-1 Slovakia

Full time score – England 1-1 Slovakia

First goalscorer - Ivan Schranz

First booking – Marc Guehi

Number of corners - 9

Penalty yes/no? – No

Minute of first goal – 25th

ITV Picks is back further jackpot prizes available for all European Championship fixtures. To enter, visit: picks.itv.com