24-year-old England international is on the cusp of a domestic treble – Premier League champion, Carabao Cup winner and with the FA Cup final to come on Saturday.
His personal honours include the PFA Young Player of the Year and the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, and he was runner-up to Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk as PFA Player of the Year.
Regardless the Manchester City superstar Raheem Sterling has revealed he was a massive Manchester United fan when he was young.
The England international even revealed that he went to watch the 2006/07 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea which the Blues won. Sterling made the revelation in an interview with the media.
“I was at the final in 2007,” he said. “I shouldn’t really say this — not now, definitely not now! — but when I was young I was a massive United fan. I had an old United kit, from when they won the last FA Cup.
“To be in the stadium… it was incredible. It was unbelievable and that was when I tried to give the tickets to the school. That was motivated by that — being so close to the stadium and not going there more than once.
“If two or three of the kids could be inspired, then that’s all I was trying to do. Purely, that’s how I felt at the time. If there was a kid who had a chance of being a footballer, hopefully that will give them motivation or inspiration to change their dreams.”
Raheem Sterling:
"This is exactly why I came to this club…"
[via @SkySportsPL] pic.twitter.com/ga0yqUQRRD
— Man City | Superbia (@SuperbiaProeIia) May 12, 2019
Sterling joined United’s cross-town rivals City in 2015 after spending three years with Liverpool.
Once scorned for his lack of end-product and booed by England fans, he is now one of the most potent attacking forces in the country – scoring 23 goals across all competitions for City this season, plus another six for England, and a further 17 assists for his club.
Yet it is his rise to become an unofficial spokesman for a generation of footballers on race, class, society and the media that has people asking whether Sterling is the most important sportsperson in Britain right now.