Raheem Sterling, once tipped to succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world's best player, is now without a club at just 31. The winger spent most of his career at Manchester City and Liverpool, two sides that meet on Sunday as the Premier League resumes after an extended international break.
Court Case and Driving Ban
In September, Sterling, 31, admitted to dangerous driving and possessing nitrous oxide after crashing his Lamborghini in May. Following his run-in with police, he has been disqualified from driving ahead of his next court appearance on November 25. He is currently without a club.
The admission comes after brief, disappointing stints with Arsenal and Feyenoord following his exit from Chelsea in 2024.
Rise at Liverpool and City
There was a time when the former England sensation had the world at his feet. Having emerged at Liverpool in 2012 as an exciting prospect, he left the Reds for City in 2015, where Pep Guardiola moulded him into one of the most potent wide forwards in the country.
Sterling's incredible form between 2017 and 2020 saw him net 76 goals across three seasons for the Etihad club. That even led Messi's former Barcelona team-mate Xavi Hernandez to predict that the then-24-year-old was on course to eclipse the Argentine and Ronaldo as the world's best player.
Xavi's Prediction
"Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the best player in the world awards for so many years now, it's hard to remember a time before them," said Xavi. "Messi is the best ever for me - and even though they're both still playing at a very high level - there will come the day not so long away when somebody else must step into those shoes."
"You look at young players who can be crowned the future best in the world and you still think of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Mohamed Salah, and of course Sterling. I look at the moment - and Sterling is winning that race. He's always been a good player, a dangerous player, but under Pep he has become one of the best in the world."
"I know how Pep works - he would have worked closely with him since his arrival - where he needs to improve and what he needed to work on. We're now seeing the results of that - he's still young and can be the world's best."
Decline and Current Status
Sterling ended his time at City with four Premier League titles, five League Cups and the FA Cup. Guardiola's tactical shifts saw him deviate from his reliance on Sterling during the forward's last two seasons, and he decided that he would rather play a more central role at Chelsea, where he never managed to hit the same heights.
The veteran was frozen out by Enzo Maresca at Stamford Bridge before disappointing on loan at Arsenal. He had already burned bridges at Liverpool for demanding to leave in the summer of 2015 and joining a rival just before the height of the Jurgen Klopp and Guardiola years, having regularly been booed at Anfield afterwards.
During his time in the wilderness, Sterling set up RS7 Academy while looking for a suitable training environment for his young son, one that offers an alternative way of playing to the tactics-based systems at high-profile academies.
