Chelsea FC announced on July 13 that Raheem Sterling would join the club on a five-year contract, after a seven year stint at Manchester City in which he scored over 100 goals in over 300 appearances, winning the Premier League four times, the EFL Cup four times and the FA Cup once. The England international reached the Euro 2020 Final with the Three Lions and has established himself as one of the Premier League’s most exciting players in attack, with the possibility of performing adequately on either wing, down the middle or even as a striker at times. Sterling’s announcement was the first one of the Todd Boehly era, and signals a strong intent by Chelsea’s new ownership group to return the club to the top of English and European football.
Even though the fee paid for Sterling wasn’t made public, media outlets like Sky Sports and Sports Illustrated have speculated it to be around 50 million pounds, or an estimated 60 million dollars. The Queens Park Rangers academy product will play for at least five years in Stamford Bridge, and adds to an already impressive attacking line consisting of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic. Sterling leaves Manchester City in the same transfer window as the one where the champions of England signed Julián Álvarez and Erling Haaland, two decisions that probably affected the former Liverpool player’s decision to switch clubs, adding to the fact that Sterling has called London his home in the past.
It seems like Sterling has been around forever, but he is incredibly only 27 years old, making his senior debut for Liverpool at 17 years of age at the end of the 2011/12 season. To give you a reference of how much things have changed since then in English football, here are some of Sterling’s teammates at the time of his debut: Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy and Luis Suárez, who is still playing at a high level. That season, Manchester City lifted the Premier League trophy with the historic Sergio Aguero goal in the dying moments of the match against Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal were still managed by Arsene Wenger, and Sir Alex Ferguson was still at the helm of Manchester United.
Now, 339 appearances and 131 goals later, Sterling has fulfilled the promise he showed during his time at Liverpool, and especially during the 2013/14 season, in which the Reds lost the title by a mere two points to City in the campaign that sourly ended with the infamous Steven Gerrard slip. After leaving Liverpool a season later, Sterling announced himself at City by playing in 31 Premier League and 10 UEFA Champions League matches, enjoying game time in both legs of the semifinal fixtures against Real Madrid.
In 2016/17, Pep Guardiola arrived at City and ushered in a new era of success, even though it took him a bit longer than one season to do so. That year, Sterling played 33 Premier League matches and notched seven goals and ten assists, numbers he would improve the following season. In 2017/18, the new Chelsea player also started 33 league matches but this time, managed an astonishing 18 goals and 15 assists. City won the league but couldn’t progress past the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, competition in which Sterling scored on four occasions. The following year was probably one of City’s most successful ever, winning the Premier League, the FA Cup, the EFL Cup and the Community Shield, and Sterling managed 42 direct goal contributions in all competitions.
In the 2019/20 season at the Etihad, whose end coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jamaica native scored a career-high 20 league goals, but Manchester City finished in second place, 18 points behind Liverpool. Next year, a Premier League and an EFL Cup double, added to a UEFA Champions League runners-up medal and 26 goal contributions. In his final season with the Cityzens, Sterling ended on a high note by winning the Premier League once again and with yet again 26 goal contributions. If anything’s for certain, is that when given playing time and the adequate tools, the English international can produce great numbers on the pitch. Furthermore, Sterling stated he is very excited to join the Blues, kickstarting the new era of the club, post-Roman Abramovich.
‘I’ve obviously achieved a lot in my career so far, but there is still so much more to achieve and I’m really looking forward to doing that in a Chelsea shirt, under Thomas’s (Tuchel) management…London is my home and where it all started for me, and it’s amazing I now have the opportunity to play in front of friends and family week in, week out at Stamford Bridge. I’m really looking forward to meeting the fans there soon”, he said in a club press release.
As much as Sterling achieved domestically with Man City, he lacked the European success Chelsea has managed in the past years, winning two UEFA Champions League titles and a UEFA Europa League since their new signing made his first-team debut with Liverpool in 2012. Now, the MBE (granted in 2021 due to his racial equality efforts) heads to Stamford Bridge with new objectives in mind and eleven major trophies in the bag. Here is his goodbye letter to Manchester City fans and the organization:
