IIn another world, where their careers have gone in different directions, Raheem Sterling would now be in this England squad, playing for manager Thomas Tuchel, who made him the No.1 target of the new Chelsea era after taking over from Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital.
He is 16 months younger than Harry Kane, who continues to break records as England captain and took his personal best to 73 last season. Meanwhile, Sterling is without a club and awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and possession of nitrous oxide at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court following the incident, which witnesses feared could have killed someone.
How did their careers diverge so sharply? Why is Kane thriving while Sterling is in such sad and public decline?
Multiple sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, paint a complicated picture of Sterling. One describes him as a “lost soul”. Another believes he is “hopelessly on the wrong track” in his life and career. To understand his fall, it is useful to remember the scale of his rise.
Those who have seen Sterling’s rise – from a boy helping his mother clean in Stonebridge to a hugely talented footballer at Queens Park Rangers’ academy to Liverpool’s first team at the age of 17 – remember a player perfectly groomed for success.
“Raheem was confident,” said Liverpool youth scout Mark Anderson, who convinced the club to make him one of the most expensive 15-year-olds. “He played with passion and desire. From the first time I saw him, I thought he had the ingredients to become an international prospect.”
Sterling has been training rapidly with Liverpool’s first team, where the players have marveled at how the diminutive teenager has more natural power than many adults. He was rarely seen in the gym, but he battled the likes of Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and Kolo Toure standing over him.
Steven Gerrard admitted in his book My Story that Raheem was a lot tougher mentally than some people imagine, admitting that training with Jamie Carragher was not easy for him.
Sterling’s resilience was tested when he turned down a £100,000-a-week contract and was engulfed in a public storm. It was a turning point in how he was perceived: from England’s brightest prospect to arrogant young footballer – fair or not.
In an interview with the BBC, Sterling insisted that he was not “a 20-year-old stealing money”. Pundits who supported Liverpool opposed him. Things got worse when her agent at the time, Aidy Ward, told the Evening Standard Sterling would not sign a new deal even if they offered him close to £1m-a-week. Liverpool initially sold him to Manchester City for £44m that summer.
Public sentiment had begun to change – from England’s fifth-youngest debutant, Roy Hodgson, to a player telling him he was too tired for the game against Estonia – and the first footage emerged in 2015 of Sterling inhaling from a balloon allegedly filled with nitrous oxide. Especially with England, who was scapegoated for their exit to Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016, the abuse was so venomous that Sterling branded himself #TheHatedOne on Instagram. He was 21 years old.
Within two years, he was the victim of a racially motivated attack outside Manchester City’s training ground and was racially abused by Chelsea supporters during a game at Stamford Bridge.
At his peak, he was magnificent. In 2019, he won the domestic treble with City, scoring two goals in the FA Cup final and the winning penalty in the League Cup final, securing the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award. A year later, Xavi Hernández claimed that Sterling had “won”. [the] The race to replace Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo”. The street footballer was tamed by Pep Guardiola’s perfectly rigid systems. By 2021, he had twice entered the top 15 of Ballon d’Or voting.
This was a player who continued to produce when it mattered for England to reach the Euro 2020 final: two winners, England’s only goal of the group stage, the first leg against Germany in the last 16 and the penalty that led to the decisive goal against Denmark in the semi-final. But even his attempts to do good turned some against him.
He became a central figure in the media, voicing his portrayal of racism in the community, particularly after he was criticized for buying a house for his mother. In 2020, he made an anti-racist video saying “I’ll never get tired of being black”, texting participants including Kevin De Bruyne, David Alaba and Jordan Henderson. A year later he received an MBE. In any case, it made Sterling even more bitterly opposed by some who did not know him personally.
A source who has worked closely with Sterling describes him as “polite and charming,” adding: “He doesn’t come across as arrogant or pretentious. He’s a good guy, shy — quite shy.”
In some quarters, there has been a sense of glee at the sharp decline in Sterling’s career since joining Chelsea. He had won almost everything and at the age of 27 he entered the prime years of many players.
Sterling was the player Tuchel told Boehly to prioritize – with the American billionaire enthralled by the prospect of a new striker after winning his fourth Premier League title in five years. Sterling signed a 5-year contract with 325,000 pounds per week.
Tuchel was sacked after seven weeks. In the following years, Sterling played under the management of Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and Enzo Maresca. One source asked if it would be detrimental to leave the rigid structures of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and Guardiola at Manchester City for the chaos at Chelsea. From putting up extraordinary numbers for City – 23 goals and 14 assists in 2017-18, 25 and 16 in 2018-19, 31 and 10 in 2019-20 – his productivity has declined.
In the summer of 2024, a collective decision at Chelsea decided to sell him based on his personal life and his ability to play for the team. In a particularly brutal week, two days before the start of the 2024-25 season, Maresca told Sterling he was not part of their plans and left him out of the squad for the game against Manchester City and the Conference League match against Servette, where he wore Pedro Neto’s number 7 shirt. Sterling has been forced to train away from the first team.
Apparently, he wasn’t entirely innocent here. Although he has been known to turn up late to training when he should have set an example to the Guardian, sources close to Sterling say he has never faced any recorded discipline at Chelsea. His attitude was harsh in the end, although Maresca did appreciate the wingers during friendlies until the final call.
Sterling announced he wanted to stay in London for his family and Chelsea reluctantly agreed to a loan move to Arsenal. He scored his most recent professional goal on 25 September 2024 in a Carabao Cup match against League One club Bolton.
On his return, sources say he was told to stay away from key facilities in Cobham, although a Chelsea source denied this. Sterling had his loan interest from Juventus reduced, but by January, after six months out of action, he had to make a career move.
The club agreed to buy him for a discounted fee during the remaining 18 months of his contract. His statement announcing his departure consisted of 23 words.
Sterling chose to rebuild under Robin van Persie at Feyenoord. It turned out to be disastrous: he was mocked mercilessly by the club’s fans on social media, laughed at in the stadium.
One source who worked with Sterling compared his career trajectory to that of Michael Owen – two teenage prodigies whose speed was their greatest asset and who faded as their careers waned. Owen spent his final season at Stoke, making eight appearances on the bench in the Premier League before retiring aged 33. Sterling will be 32 in December. Another source asked if earning so much and making so much money dulled the drive required to stay at the top.
Sterling returned home from Holland and 11 days later drove his Lamborghini for more than an hour on motorways while inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons, which appeared to be a cry for help. When he was arrested in May, he admitted to officers that he had a “problem” with nitrous oxide – a stark admission from an athlete hoping to play again.
“It’s sad to see someone struggle because he was a devoted father to his children and he was a family man, a nice guy to be around,” Tuchel said on Friday. “He seems to be going through a tough time. I’m not sure how much is his fault; sometimes you just go into a weird spiral in your life, a downward spiral. Of course thoughts are with him. The faith is always that he can turn it around.”
Standing in the dock in court last month dressed in black as Liverpool prepared for their League Cup tie against Tottenham, Sterling learned he faced the real prospect of prison when the court reconvened in November.
“Before he became Raheem Sterling, an international footballer, a Premier League player and a household name, he was just a young lad with football that someone had to believe in,” says Anderson.
Will anyone believe him now?