Raheem Sterling was left out of England’s latest squad for games against Italy and Ukraine because Gareth Southgate didn’t have a choice.
“Raheem is not fit,” England manager Gareth Southgate said ahead of the first Euro 2024 qualifiers. “If he was available, I would have chosen him.” Southgate gave a firm response to questions implying that Sterling might no longer be a lock for international call-ups.
In the same position, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka are having their best seasons as professionals, Jack Grealish is a Manchester City regular under Pep Guardiola, and Phil Foden is back in form. Despite this, Southgate insisted on selecting Sterling.
It’s likely to be the case again when Southgate chooses his next England squad for Euro qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia in June.
It’s easy to overlook Sterling’s accomplishments now that he’s 28 and more than a decade removed from his senior debut. He has played 500 club games and scored 150 goals. He has 82 England caps and has won 10 trophies, including four Premier League titles.
Since making his England debut as a 17-year-old, he and Jordan Henderson are the only two players to have been selected for World Cups in 2014, 2018, and 2022. He’ll be 31 when the next one begins in the United States, Mexico, and Canada in 2026.
According to sources close to the England camp, Sterling has been critical to the national team’s turnaround under Southgate. After reaching two tournament semifinals in the 50 years since winning the World Cup in 1966, England under Southgate advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals in Russia in 2018 and the European Championship final in 2021. Southgate credits his experienced international leadership group, of which Sterling is a member, with changing the atmosphere and morale around camps.
Southgate, according to sources, earmarked Sterling for a key role in the England dressing room when he took over as manager in 2016, after being impressed with his leadership with the under-21s. Sterling was one of the senior players Southgate consulted after the England team’s World Cup quarterfinal loss to France in December.
Many of the coaches and managers who have worked with Sterling believe he is still underappreciated. He has played for three of England’s top clubs: Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea. When he was moving between the Etihad Stadium and Stamford Bridge in the summer, there was significant interest from some of Europe’s top clubs, including Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich.
Sterling joined Chelsea after Thomas Tuchel made the forward his top priority, and in transfer meetings with new owner Todd Boehly, the German coach made the point that a player like Sterling would have made the difference in a series of tight finals — the 2021 League Cup, the 2022 League Cup, and 2022 FA Cup — all of which Chelsea lost.
In five seasons between 2017 and 2022, Sterling scored 78 Premier League goals in 161 appearances — a rate of almost a goal every other game — as Manchester City won the title four times. However, it doesn’t help the feeling that Sterling’s form during City’s domination of the division was underappreciated given that he was only named in the PFA team of the year once, at the end of the 2018-19 campaign. The following season he reached 20 Premier League goals and 31 in all competitions.
Sterling is still finding his feet at Chelsea, having joined the club in a state of flux. Tuchel was sacked in September and replaced with Graham Potter, who has tried a number of different systems in an effort to cope with an extensive injury list and an unprecedented turnover of players. Sterling, alone, has been asked to play in six different positions.
There’s an acceptance around Stamford Bridge that some stability beyond this season will help, although when Potter and Chelsea needed a goal to turn the Champions League last-16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund, it was no surprise that it came from Sterling. Wayne Rooney is the only Englishman to score more than 27 Champions League goals.
“Raheem has come into a new team that has lost some key players over the summer, brought some new ones in, and then the manager has changed,” Potter said in December. “It is my responsibility to help the team function better so that he can play better because he has got quality and is a top player.”
It’s an opinion shared by Guardiola and Tuchel — two of the best managers in the world — and also by Southgate as he begins his preparations for another crack at a major tournament at the Euros in Germany in 2024. Injury has denied Sterling the chance to be there at the start of the campaign, but if Southgate has his way, he’ll be there at the business end.
FootBall2 weeks ago
