Player of the day: Raheem Sterling

14 August 2012 12:10
Today’s Player of the Day is the exciting young Liverpool Football Club attacking midfielder Raheem Sterling. Sterling is widely regarded by many professionals in the game as the future of English football and his performances for Liverpool during their pre season campaign have only helped to back this suggestion further.

Sterling was at Queens Park Rangers for seven years as a youth player before being transferred to Liverpool in February 2010 for an initial fee of £600,000, but this could rise to £5 million depending on how many appearances he makes for the first team. He made his first appearance for the first time in a pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach on 1st August 2010 but up until the end of the 2011-12 season was predominantly used in the youth and reserve squads. Sterling’s performances for the youth and reserve squad earned him many plaudits, most notably for scoring 5 goals in Liverpool youth team’s 9-0 win over Southend United in the FA Youth Cup.

On 24 March 2012, Sterling made his senior Liverpool debut as a substitute in a league match against Wigan Athletic aged 17 years and 107 days, becoming the second youngest player ever to play for the club. Sterling went on to make two more substitute appearances during the 2011-12 season coming off the bench against Fulham and Chelsea.

In August 2012, he made his European cup competition debut for the club, coming on as substitute in a UEFA Europa League qualifying match against FC Gomel, replacing Joe Cole, which Liverpool went on to win 1-0. The following week Sterling scored his first goal for Liverpool with a brilliant first half strike in a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen.



Sterling has represented England at Under-16 and Under-17 level. He is also eligible to play for Jamaica, his country of birth. Sterling was selected in the England squad for the 2011 FUFA U-17 World Cup scoring in wins against Rwanda and Argentina.

Become a fan of Raheem of Facebook by liking his official PFA page:

http://www.facebook.com/raheemsterlingfootball

Source: DSG