Raheem Sterling targeting further improvement after long road to Manchester City
Sunday 2 April 2017 16:23, UK
I remember the first time I saw Raheem Sterling play. I also remember the first time I was supposed to see him play.
It was a grim night at Huish Park, home of Yeovil Town, back in October 2009. England were playing Wales in the Victory Shield (the under-16 tournament contested by the four Home Nations) and in the build-up there was talk about this young attacking player who had already been training with QPR's first team.
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The game was live on Sky Sports and was one of my first as a reporter. Unfortunately for me, having done my prep and become increasingly eager to see this star of the future, Sterling wasn't picked. He didn't even make the squad. It turns out he remembers this too.
"I remember going home and crying on the floor of my house, I just burst out in tears, it was heartbreaking. At that time for me, the biggest thing I could ever do was play for England," says Sterling, who was not even 15 at the time of the game.
"To not be recognised as one of the best, I was so upset with myself. But my mum just said, 'Get over yourself, there'll always be another chance'.
"She always gives it to me in a ruthless way, just plain, black and white, 'fix yourself up'.
"I like when people are straight with me. If I'm rubbish tell me, that's how I like it."
His big night, and the first time I actually saw him play, came a month later. Chester's Deva Stadium was the venue, Northern Ireland the visitors. Sterling was a sub but - when he got his chance - transformed the match.
"I came on and was involved in two goals, I was buzzing. I went to school the next day and I was like the school superhero.
"There was a teacher who didn't like me because I was always had a football under the table or something and I was always disturbing her class. The next day she was my best friend and we've been friends ever since."
He might have won over his old teacher, but Sterling is very aware that he's not had the same success winning over football fans up and down the country.
Interviewing him for this weekend's Super Sunday was the first occasion I'd spent any length of time in his company. In contrast with what often seems to be the public perception, I found him warm, likeable and fiercely determined.
Without that determination, Liverpool, City and England would never have happened. He wouldn't have made it past Queens Park Rangers.
"QPR was amazing, it was the best for me," says Sterling, who was brought up in Wembley and joined the west London club when he was nine.
"I remember, when I was at Liverpool, looking back at how it started.
"My mum was working and doing a lot of night shifts and sometimes she couldn't take me [to training].
"My sister took me for a while but she got tired of it and said the journey's too long. In the end I took two buses, it took an hour and 20 minutes, I wasn't stopping for anything, I just thought, 'I'll go by myself'.
"You don't think what's at the end of it, football was just my joy. It wasn't like I wanted to be a professional, I was literally just enjoying myself. It got me away from my area, it got me playing games, it got me travelling. I just loved it."
That's the other thing that shines through. Sterling clearly loves football - not just the riches that come with being very good at it.
I asked him - if he could go back - what advice he'd give to his teenage self, to the kid desperate to break into the England schoolboy team.
"Stay on the straight and narrow, everything else that comes with it, block it out from the start.
"When I was that age I was getting the same treatment I am now - people saying this, people saying that. You don't need to listen to it, just keep enjoying your football.
"Keep being that 15-year-old kid and I think I am getting back to that way, I'm enjoying my football and every moment of my life from now until I finish playing is just going to be about enjoying it."
His performances certainly suggest he's enjoying it. With nine goals and 14 assists he's already been involved in more goals than in any other season in his career.
"It's felt alright, it's felt good. I don't want to sound massive but I've got a lot more to come.
"Seeing some assist stats - just a few behind Neymar - that's great to see but I want to be doing it in games like Monaco, that we lost, those are the games that make you as a player."
He did make the difference the last time City played Arsenal, scoring the winning goal at the Etihad. In the return fixture on Super Sunday he hopes to make the difference again.
"Sunday morning, in London, in my home town, i'm going to be looking forward to it.
"When I was younger and we had Arsenal at the weekend, oh my gosh, it was like I was going to see my favourite person in the world.
"I used to admire the amazing players they had at my age group, it was always a great test for me and it will be another great test at the weekend."
For City and Sterling it will, indeed, be another big test. But in the past eight years, he's passed plenty of those.
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