Decline and fall: who will believe in Raheem Sterling now?

In another world, where careers broke in different directions, Raheem Sterling would be in this England squad now, playing for the manager, Thomas Tuchel, who made him the No 1 target of the new Chelsea era after the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover.

He is 16 months younger than Harry Kane, who continues to break records as England’s captain and hit a personal high of 73 goals last season. Sterling, meanwhile, is without a club and awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty at Basingstoke magistrates court to dangerous driving and possession of nitrous oxide after an incident that witnesses feared might kill someone.

Related: Raheem Sterling’s bleak tale a reminder of absurd path young footballers face | Jonathan Liew

How have their careers diverged so starkly? Why is Kane thriving while Sterling lives through such a sad and public decline?

Multiple sources, who asked not to be named to protect relationships, paint a complicated picture of Sterling. One describes him as a “lost soul”. Another believes he has been “hopelessly misguided” in his life and career. To understand his fall, it is pertinent to remember the magnitude of his rise.

Those who saw Sterling’s ascent – from the boy helping his mum on cleaning jobs in Stonebridge to the outrageously gifted footballer in Queens Park Rangers’ academy, to Liverpool’s first team at 17 – recall a player who seemed perfectly calibrated for success.

“Raheem was confident,” says Mark Anderson, the Liverpool youth scout who convinced the club to make him one of the most expensive 15-year-olds. “He played with passion and desire. From the first time I saw him, I thought he had the ingredients to become an international prospect.”

Sterling was quickly training with Liverpool’s first team, where players were stunned that this slight teen possessed a natural strength beyond many adults. He was rarely seen in the gym, yet held his own against Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and Kolo Touré, who towered over him.

“Raheem was much tougher mentally than some people might have imagined,” Steven Gerrard wrote in his book, My Story, admitting that he and Jamie Carragher did not go easy on him in training.

Sterling’s resilience was tested when he rejected a £100,000-a-week contract and became engulfed in a public storm. It marked a turning point in how he was perceived: from England’s brightest prospect to arrogant young footballer – fair or not.

Sterling gave an interview to the BBC insisting he was not a “money-grabbing 20-year-old”. Liverpool-supporting pundits turned on him. Matters worsened when his then-agent, Aidy Ward, told the Evening Standard that Sterling wouldn’t sign a new deal even if they offered close to £1m per week. Liverpool sold him to Manchester City for an initial £44m that summer.

Public sentiment had begun to shift – from England’s fifth-youngest debutant to the player who told Roy Hodgson he was too tired for a game against Estonia – and the first images of Sterling inhaling from a balloon allegedly filled with nitrous oxide emerged in 2015. Leaving Liverpool darkened the mood, and the reputation has since haunted him. Particularly with England, where he became the scapegoat for the Euro 2016 last-16 exit to Iceland, the abuse so toxic that Sterling branded himself #TheHatedOne on Instagram. He was 21.

Within two years he was the victim of a racially motivated attack outside Manchester City’s training ground and was racially abused by Chelsea supporters during a match at Stamford Bridge.

At his peak, he was spectacular. In 2019, he won a domestic treble with City, scored two goals in the FA Cup final and the winning penalty in the League Cup final shootout and secured the Football Writers’ Association’s footballer of the year award. A year later, Xavi Hernández claimed Sterling was “winning [the] race” to replace Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The street footballer tamed by Pep Guardiola’s brilliantly rigid systems. By 2021, he had twice finished in the top 15 of Ballon d’Or voting.

This was a player who kept producing when it mattered as England reached the Euro 2020 final: two winners the only goals of England’s group stage, the opener against Germany in the last 16 and winning the penalty that led to the decisive goal against Denmark in the semi-final. But even his attempts to do good seemed to turn some against him.

He became a central figure calling out racism in society, particularly his own depictions in the media after criticism for buying his mother a house. In 2020, he recorded an anti-racism video declaring “I will never tire of being black”, texting the contributors including Kevin De Bruyne, David Alaba and Jordan Henderson, to ask them to take part. He received an MBE a year later. If anything, it made some who did not know Sterling personally more fervently opposed to him.

One source who worked closely with Sterling describes him as “polite and charming”, saying: “He doesn’t come across as arrogant or having an attitude. He’s a nice guy, shy – quite bashful.”

In some quarters, there has been a degree of glee in the way Sterling’s career declined sharply after he joined Chelsea. He had won almost everything and, at 27, was entering the years when many players peak.

Sterling was the player Tuchel told Boehly to prioritise – the American billionaire captivated by the prospect of making a forward fresh from winning his fourth Premier League title in five years their marquee signing. Sterling signed a five-year contract on £325,000 a week.

Tuchel was sacked seven weeks later. In the years that followed, Sterling played under Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and Enzo Maresca. One source questioned whether leaving the rigid structures of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool and Guardiola at Manchester City for the chaos at Chelsea was damaging. From posting extraordinary numbers at City – 23 goals and 14 assists in 2017-18, 25 and 16 in 2018-19, 31 and 10 in 2019-20 – his output dwindled.

A collective decision at Chelsea in summer 2024 to sell him was made based on his personal life and ability to play in the team. In a particularly brutal week, two days before the start of the 2024-25 season, Maresca told Sterling he was not part of his plans and left him out of the squad for the game against Manchester City and a Conference League tie with Servette in which Pedro Neto wore his No 7 shirt. Sterling was forced to train away from the first team.

It seems he was not entirely innocent here. The Guardian was told he was known to turn up late for training when he was supposed to set an example, though sources close to Sterling say he never faced a recorded disciplinary at Chelsea. His treatment ultimately was harsh, though it is understood Maresca assessed his wingers during friendlies until a final call was made.

Sterling made clear he wanted to stay in London for his family, and Chelsea reluctantly sanctioned a loan to Arsenal. He scored once, in a Carabao Cup game against League One club Bolton on 25 September 2024, his most recent professional goal.

When he returned, sources say he was told to stay away from the main facilities at Cobham, though a Chelsea source denied this was the case. Sterling declined loan interest from Juventus, but by January, after six months without playing, needed to move for the sake of his career.

The club agreed to buy him out of the remaining 18 months of his contract at a reduced fee. Their statement announcing his departure was 23 words long.

Sterling chose to rebuild under Robin van Persie at Feyenoord. It was disastrous: ruthlessly mocked on social media by the club’s fans, laughed at in the stadium.

One source who worked with Sterling compared his career trajectory with Michael Owen’s – two teen prodigies whose speed was their greatest asset, and whose careers faded as that diminished. Owen played his final season at Stoke, making eight Premier League appearances from the bench, and retired at 33. Sterling will be 32 in December. Another source questioned whether winning so much and earning vast sums had dulled the desire required to stay at the top.

Sterling returned home from the Netherlands and, 11 days later, drove his Lamborghini for more than an hour on motorways during rush hour while inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons, it seemed like a cry for help. He admitted to officers, when arrested in May, that he had a “problem” with nitrous oxide – a stark admission from an athlete with hopes of playing again.

“It’s sad to see that someone struggles, because he was a devoted father for his children and he was a family guy, a nice guy to be around,” Tuchel said on Friday. “It just seems that he goes through a difficult period. I’m not sure how much is his fault; sometimes you just enter a strange spiral in your life, a downward spiral. Thoughts are with him of course. The belief is always that he can turn it around.”

Standing in the dock in court dressed in black last month, while Liverpool were preparing for a League Cup game against Tottenham, Sterling learned he faces the real prospect of prison when the court reconvenes in November.

“Before he was Raheem Sterling the international footballer, the Premier League player and the name everybody knew, he was simply a young boy with a football who somebody had to believe in,” Anderson says.

Will anyone still believe in him now?