•There is no reason why Sterling will not end his international career with in excess of 100 appearances.
•At the same age as Sterling now, David Beckham had just 22 caps and he went on to play for England 115 times.
Image: /REUTERS
So, if Virgil van Dijk is voted Footballer of the Year this season, is that because Raheem Sterling is black?
Makes no sense, does it, this idea Sterling is deprived of praise, respect or individual honours because of the colour of his skin? Not when the last two Footballers of the Year have not been white, or the last three to win the players’ award.
Being black has never kept Sterling out of the team at Manchester City. Nor did it stop his progress with Liverpool or England. He had won 47 caps before his 24th birthday and played in two World Cups.
There is no reason why Sterling will not end his international career with in excess of 100 appearances. At the same age as Sterling now, David Beckham had just 22 caps and he went on to play for England 115 times.
On a personal level, Sterling was Liverpool’s young player of the year twice, became Golden Boy of 2014 — an award for young footballers judged by journalists across Europe — has twice been Premier League player of the month and made UEFA’s team of the group stage for the Champions League in 2015-16.
And if he hasn’t won Player of the Year or Footballer of the Year, then neither has Sergio Aguero. Maybe other candidates were worthy of consideration, too. For Rio Ferdinand to intimate Sterling struggles for recognition because of his ethnicity fails to acknowledge the identity of other award recipients: N’Golo Kante and Mohamed Salah, the last two winners of major individual honours in English football. Before them, the PFA Player of the Year for 2016 was Riyad Mahrez.
So there is another explanation. Maybe last year, Salah’s contribution to Liverpool outstripped that of any one City player.
The year before, Kante’s feat in being almost ever-present across back-to-back title-winning seasons for two clubs was unparalleled. And Mahrez was the creative driving force in the most unexpected title victory in the history of English football.
As such, being a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) athlete had no effect on their aspirations at all. They were judged on performance, as Sterling is, within football. When he burst on to the scene with Liverpool in 2013-14, was he more influential than Luis Suarez? No? Well, that’s why Suarez won Footballer of the Year.
We know black footballers withstand the most despicable abuse. Huddersfield are taking action against one of their own fans for a tweet sent to midfielder Philip Billing. Yet Ferdinand was not citing the actions of individuals. He said that if Harry Kane was in the same form as Sterling this season we would be talking of him as a Ballon d’Or winner.
He called out a collective mindset. Yet Sterling is being mentioned in plenty of dispatches regarding individual honours. Maybe not the biggest ones continent-wide just yet, but neither was Salah this time last year. It took Liverpool to reach the Champions League final for him to achieve the level of acclaim given to Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luka Modric and understandably so.
Kane is widely admired, but no one gave him a prayer when named in a shortlist of Ballon d’Or nominees in 2018.
This is not about race but realism. Sterling is having an outstanding year, but a Ballon d’Or winner? Have a look at Ronaldo’s Champions League numbers or consider Sterling might not even collect Player of the Year at his club. Sterling has been at the centre of very important discussions about race in English football this year but to put every perceived slight down to the colour of his skin is false.
He may miss out to Van Dijk, particularly if Liverpool win the title. And, as a third BAME footballer in succession lifts the award, that would be a racist judgment?