Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling has purchased 550 tickets for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley and donated them to children from his old school near the stadium. The 24-year-old attended Copland community school, now Ark Elvin academy, while growing up in London.
School principal Rebecca Curtis praised Sterling as a role model, noting that many pupils have never been inside Wembley. 'To know he still thinks about the community he came from despite how his life has changed is really powerful for us,' she said.
Sterling said: 'I grew up right next door to the stadium and would dream of one day playing in a cup final… this is a great opportunity to give back to the community that helped me get to where I am.'
City have had to return some of their allocation of extra tickets for the game, which has a 5.30pm kick-off inconvenient for northern travellers. Meanwhile, Kevin De Bruyne downplayed talk of a quadruple, saying the team must go game by game.
De Bruyne also praised Phil Foden, who made his first Premier League start in the 2-0 win over Cardiff. He believes Foden could feature for England at next year's European Championship, adding that England should be favourites alongside France.
Oleksandr Zinchenko described the hamstring injury he suffered against Cardiff as 'not so serious'.
