Raheem Sterling will surely go down in history as an English football legend. He accumulated 82 England caps, only 18 men have more, while winning 11 major honours with Manchester City, including four Premier League titles.
He also scored 123 Premier League goals, thereby joint-20th on the all-time list, level with Dwight Yorke, but very little of what Sterling will be remembered for came in a Chelsea shirt. He joined the Blues from the Citizens for a reported fee of £47.5 million in the summer of 2022 and, while he was far from useless, this was not money well spent.
Sterling only scored 19 goals in 81 outings for Chelsea, actually the club's top scorer in the 2022/23 season, albeit this coming as they slumped to a 12th place finish. Thus, two years after arriving, Sterling was completely frozen out by manager Enzo Maresca, part of the infamous bomb squad. His career was given a lifeline as he joined Arsenal on loan in a deadline day panic. Nevertheless, Sterling scored only once in 28 appearances for the Gunners, this against Bolton in the EFL Cup, and frankly looked finished as an elite-level footballer, despite only being 30 years old.
Well, after 273 days of inactivity, Sterling commenced the latest chapter of his career at the weekend, but did not impress onlookers.
Raheem Sterling's Eredivisie debut
Back on 28 January, Sterling's Chelsea contract was terminated by mutual consent. Considering he had 18 months on a wage of £375,000-per-week left to run, a hefty pay off was surely required to make that feeling mutual. As a result, after the transfer window had closed, the Englishman surprisingly joined Feyenoord on a six-month contract as a free agent.
Well, at first, he was unable to obtain a Dutch work permit, so Feyenoord manager Robin van Persie decided to take the squad on a training camp in Tubize in Belgium, around 100 miles south of Rotterdam. Sterling then made his Eredivisie debut on Sunday, replacing Gijs Smal on the hour mark as Feyenoord beat relegation threatened Telstar 2-1 at De Kuip. Despite the victory, the debutant did not impress the Dutch media.
Raheem Sterling's statistics vs Telstar
Statistics | Sterling | Match rank |
|---|---|---|
Shots | Zero | 12th |
Accurate passes | 8 | 22nd |
Key passes | Zero | 14th |
Possession lost | 6 | 21st |
Attempted dribbles | Zero | 22nd |
Touches | 17 | 24th |
Match rating | 6.5 | 22nd |
Note: All statistics are courtesy of SofaScore.
Yes it is only a small sample size, considering it's just one game, of which Sterling only played 30 minutes, but the Dutch press were not impressed.
Valentijn Driessen of De Telegraaf documented a frenzied excitement among the Feyenoord faithful ahead of his introduction, noting Sterling shirts had been "flying off the shelves". Despite this, Driessen described Sterling's debut as "rather anonymous and lacklustre", noting that he'll have to be better in the coming week, given that Telstar are among the weakest opposition he'll encounter.
Having exited the Europa League in the league phase, and been dumped out the KNVB Beker by Heerenveen, Feyenoord merely have ten Eredivisie fixtures remaining this season, so Sterling won't be afforded much time to get up to speed. The 16-times Dutch champions are second, albeit 14 points adrift leaders PSV Eindhoven, simply seeking Champions League qualification.
The way Sterling was treated by Chelsea has been widely criticised, completely bombed out, so much so that he was forced to both train and eat with the under-18s. However, given that length and financial value of his contract, the hierarchy may feel vindicated that they were able to force out a player who is very much a fading force, seemingly unable to rediscover any semblance of magic.