Raheem Sterling has been England’s star player at Euro as the national team seek to end 55 years of injury and win their first major since 1966.
The Manchester City striker was facing calls to drop ahead of the competition but proved his skeptics wrong with three goals in four games – including the crucial first game against Germany as Three Lions sealed a place in the quarterfinals.
Once the most expensive English player of all time, Sterling spent a decade in the limelight after entering the Liverpool squad at just 17.
Sterling celebrates goal against Germany
After facing a family tragedy in his youth and controversy in the newspapers early in his career, he has been instrumental in tackling racial abuse in football and beyond in recent years.
So what do we know about the “Brent boy” who carries a nation’s hopes for Euro 2020?
Born in Jamaica on December 8, 1994, Sterling was just two years old when his father was murdered.
“It’s shaped my whole life,” Sterling said, writing in The Players’ Tribune in 2018.
“Soon after, my mother made the decision to leave me and my sister in Jamaica and go to England so that she could graduate and give us a better life.”
Living with his grandmother in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, Sterling recalls being jealous as he watched other children with their mothers.
“I didn’t really understand what my mom was doing for us. I just knew she was gone,” he wrote.
“My grandmother was amazing, but everyone wants their mom at this age.”
At the age of five, Sterling moved to London to live with his mother and grew up in the shadow of Wembley Stadium – the birthplace of English football – as he watched the new pitch build from his back garden .
He spent time in a school for children with behavioral problems, where one of his teachers reportedly told him “if he continued as he was going, he …”
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-30 11:43:00
