“Thank God I had football. I remember when it used to rain, all the kids would run outside and play football in the puddles, just splashing around, having the best time.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’ve learned how to deal with pressure more. I’m still trying to achieve more in my game and add more to it. I feel like I’m still learning every day, and I want to keep on improving.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I just don’t like losing, I don’t like losing, full stop. Even if it’s at FIFA.”
― Raheem Sterling
“There’s a perception in certain parts of the media that I love ‘bling.’ I love diamonds. I love to show off. I really don’t understand where that comes from.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If you grew up the same way I grew up, don’t listen to what certain tabloids want to tell you. They just want to steal your joy. They just want to pull you down.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I don’t want to be the one that says Liverpool can go on and win the league. But there’s a real belief and togetherness in the squad; we’re all working for each other. We all know what the dream is at the end of it.”
― Raheem Sterling
“When it rains, nobody hides inside. You just go out and enjoy it. The other thing I remember is begging my grandmother for money to go and get a grapenut ice cream.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I just want to be seen as a kid who loves to play football and to do the best for the team.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If you don’t score, what happens? You sulk on the bus the whole way back.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Make the boys go off to the World Cup with a clear head, that everyone is behind them and everyone is with them, and trust me: I think you would definitely see a better England.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Obviously, it’s disappointing when you put on a shirt and get negative feedback, but at the same time, it’s what the fans want to see; they want to see you perform well.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Footballers need to be aware kids look up to them.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’ve got that face. You know when you see someone on TV and go, ‘I don’t like him?’ Some people have that face, and I’ve got it. I can’t do anything about it.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’ve just got face: he looks like a brat. The ‘I don’t like face.’ That’s how I see it. And I’m not a brat. Sometimes I’m watching a movie, and you see a character and go, ‘I don’t like him’ – that’s me.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Performing for my dad does drive me on. Especially in big games, massive games.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Goals can help lift me to be one of the best two or three in the world, most definitely. You score the goal that wins the football match five, six, seven times a season: you are one of the best in the world. And that’s what I need to do. I need to keep being consistent.”
― Raheem Sterling
“It’s never been about money. I talk about winning trophies throughout my career. That’s all I talk about.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I don’t talk about how many cars I’m going to drive, how many houses I’ve got. I just purely want to be the best I can be.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I just want to take the time to think about what I’ve achieved in my career so far, where I need to go, and what I need to do to get better as a player.”
― Raheem Sterling
“A few years ago, I would let it get to me. But now, as long as my mum and my sister and my kids don’t have any stress, I’m good.”
― Raheem Sterling
“England is still a place where a naughty boy who comes from nothing can live his dream.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I grew up five minutes from the stadium and watched it being built. I’d play football right outside and look up at this huge stadium with all the cranes and building work and think, ‘One day, when it’s finished, I need to be playing in here.’”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’m still short now, but when I was 14, I was like a pencil. You had to be aggressive and hold your own.”
― Raheem Sterling
“One of my friends, Bruno Andrade, was so quick, he just used to knock the ball past whoever he was playing against, and I thought, ‘Why can’t I do that?’ Until then, I would try to dribble and maybe try a stepover, but Andre would just knock it then – beep, beep – and he was so fast, he would get there first.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If people want to write about my mum’s bathroom in her house, all I have to tell you is that 15 years ago, we were cleaning toilets in Stonebridge and getting breakfast out of the vending machine. If anybody deserves to be happy, it’s my mum.”
― Raheem Sterling
“My mum thinks she knows her football. She’ll certainly tell me when I’m not doing something right. At other times, she’ll say I’m not listening to her. There’s been a few clashes with her.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I was looking at the sights, thinking, ‘I used to play there a couple of years back, and now I’m on the coach with the England team.’”
― Raheem Sterling
“Growing up, you watch players like Ronaldinho playing in World Cups, doing the business, and you idolise these people.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I am always analysing myself; I am always critical of myself and always trying to improve.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Something good happens or something bad, I think, ‘What can I do better? What didn’t I do this year?’”
― Raheem Sterling
“I try to get better in every aspect of my life, not just on the football field. I am competitive, and I just want to always get better.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’m trying to make the box, trying to be more ruthless, more clinical, and trying to decide games.”
― Raheem Sterling
“It’s always an honor to put on an England shirt, but this one is different – it makes you really feel fast; plus, it’s light and fits nicely.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’m sorry to say it, but we have to be more arrogant and more streetwise because we are coming up against some great teams who have that streetwise mentality. They bring their play into it: you do what you have to do to win a game. Simple as that. Be streetwise and clever.”
― Raheem Sterling
“A quarter-final won’t be good enough at all, because we want to win it.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Every player wants to win the World Cup – every country wants to win the World Cup – so anything less than that is not really a bonus. Of course you can take positives out of everything, but you won’t be entirely happy if you don’t win it.”
― Raheem Sterling
“That’s the one thing I don’t like hearing, when someone says, ‘We’ll see what happens, see what happens here, see what happens there.’ Forget all of that.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Some things that started in pre-season and then, you know what, the season gets started, you kind of forget about it and then move on to football, and it’s strictly football until the season finishes.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’ve got a massive opportunity here with a great bunch of players to represent England at a World Cup; that’s my biggest focus now.”
― Raheem Sterling
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do: wear the number 10 for England.”
― Raheem Sterling
“For a few years, we lived with our grandmother in Kingston, and I remember watching the other kids with their mums and just feeling really jealous. I didn’t fully understand what my mum was doing for us. I just knew that she was gone. My grandma was amazing, but everybody wants their mum at that age.”
― Raheem Sterling
“My mum was working as a cleaner at some hotels to make extra money so she could pay for her degree. I’ll never forget waking up at five in the morning before school and helping her clean the toilets at the hotel in Stonebridge.”
― Raheem Sterling
“When I used to dribble, I’d be on the wing, and I’d control it with the outside of my foot – it slows the ball down.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I had a rough year, my first year at Man City, a big club for a big transfer fee. There was a lot of talk, a lot of pressure, and I didn’t think I was being spoken about in a fair manner.”
― Raheem Sterling
“As a young boy – I was 20-21, around that age – I didn’t think I was being treated right. It can affect anyone, not just me. It was about how I bounced back, how I had to think and sit down and try to move on. Not let that defeat me.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and score more, and it will be a matter of time. Once you get back into that rhythm, you will start getting balls that drop to you in positions where it wasn’t before. I do have that feeling that it is going to come soon.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Forget what everybody says. I know what I want to do and what I need to improve on. Nobody needs to tell me.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Before I went to Liverpool, I was a striker and then sometimes a No. 8 or No. 10, and my thing was shooting, finishing, and long-distance shots.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I remember being coached at Liverpool, and there was another kid called Toni Silva, and they said, ‘You know, instead of blasting the ball, and it goes in, do like Toni does: pass it around the keeper.’”
― Raheem Sterling
“A better goals-to-game ratio is the aim for me now. If you score goals, you will get people talking about you.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I don’t think I’m the most confident person, but I have people around me who, while they don’t say I am the greatest thing in football, have a general belief in me.”
― Raheem Sterling
“When I got the ball in the reserves, within two touches I would turn and look to attack my opponent, whereas in the first team, I was trying for the safer option. I needed to go back to basics. I needed to get defenders on the back foot again.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I don’t want to be perceived as the money-grabbing 20-year-old; I just want to be perceived as the kid who loves to play football.”
― Raheem Sterling
“The fans get a bit frustrated with me because I’m not signing straight away. They can get on your back a little bit, but this is football, and you have to accept these things.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I would never want the fans to think bad of me, to think I just want as much money for myself.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Everyone’s dream, growing up, is seeing themselves in an away kit somewhere in a sunny country. But, in reality, I’m happy to be playing for Liverpool and trying to win trophies.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’ve come to a point in my career where it doesn’t matter if I dribble or nutmeg someone. The only thing that matters is whether I was decisive, did I put the ball in the back of the net today, and did it help the team win.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I still remember not scoring against United. You always want to score in the big games.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If you’ve got a fast and strong defender, on the left, I feel like I can give him trouble going down the line, coming inside, or making runs in behind.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I’m a person, when something’s not going right, I’m looking at myself and seeing how I can improve and what I can do better.”
― Raheem Sterling
“Sometimes you can get sloppy and control the ball right at your feet, and that gives the defenders a chance.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If you want your country to do well as everyone says, bring a positive light to it.”
― Raheem Sterling
“If I lose the ball, I want to get on it as quickly as possible and make up for it, whereas before, I would hide away and maybe only look for the ball 10 minutes later. I don’t want to give the defenders any break.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I sat down with my agent and went through my youth-team video footage. I saw that when I started, I’d get on the ball and within two touches would turn straight away and look to attack my opponent, but when I got into the first team, I would go for the safer option.”
― Raheem Sterling
“When the time is right I have a laugh and a joke with my friends on a day off, but I have had to make sacrifices, and in that sense it’s been a huge step forward, completely different to how it was before. I was 18 when the manager spoke to me. I realised I’m not like any other teenager. I can’t be doing stuff any other 18 or 19-year-old was doing.”
― Raheem Sterling
“I am not saying I don’t think I’m good, but I’m not the type of player to have an ego or big myself up.”
― Raheem Sterling
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