Raheem Sterling's meteoric rise from school struggles to World Cup starlet

Raheem Sterling is an example of someone who almost threw it all away

A young boy, his hair platted, his face beaming, slips the ball through the legs of one of his classmates and erupts into raucous laughter. He is supremely talented, skipping past his adversaries with such utter ease in a five-a-side game at Vernon House Special School.

He attends the specialist school having been expelled from his mainstream primary school and Chris Beschi, the institution’s headteacher, is not convinced of his demeanour. “If you carry on the way you’re going, by the time you’re seventeen, you’ll be in prison or playing for England”, he says, Wembley Stadium ironically shadowing over the tough St Raphael’s Estate.

It is Sterling’s hardship which sweetens his taste of success. The winger developed his love for football in the notoriously precarious district of Maverley in Kingston, the Jamaican capital. He emigrated aged five with his mother Nadine in search of solace which, at first, eluded Sterling.

“My first memory of Raheem was of him walking into our school with long plaits in his hair and massive smile on his face”, recalls Beshi. He was probably about two-and-a-half foot tall and I remember thinking ‘I can’t believe a kid who looks that happy and that cute is here.”

“He was a tiny little ball of energy and sometimes that would tip over into anger and he would get aggressive with other kids,” Beschi added. “But from the first day he joined the school it became evident that he had a talent for football that was beyond his years. Way beyond his years.

“He was always happy playing football and he played grinning and laughing as he put the ball through your legs. He found it hilarious how much better he was than you. I played against him every day. We played with five kids and five adults on each team. Having Raheem on your side was better than having an extra adult.”

Queens Park Rangers noticed his mercurial talent and welcomed him into their academy. The youngster excelled, attracting interest from Manchester City and Arsenal before Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez invited him and his mother to the club’s training ground. Steven Gerrard enticed him into a move, stating that he would not be seen simply as a prospect but a first-team player. A deal was reached, costing Liverpool £600,000. A bargain, as the future confirmed.

“I did say to him that if he carried on the way he was going he would either be playing for England or he’d be in prison. But years later when I turned on the TV and saw him playing for England Schoolboys against Spain I almost fell off my seat. It made me hysterical with joy. I got my wife and kids in and said ‘He did it. That’s him!’”

Roy Hodgson, who has selected Sterling in his 23-man FIFA World Cup squad, is focused on keeping his players grounded but confessed Sterling’s rise to have been “meteoric”.

“I don’t want to paint him as a fairytale character – a young, urban, naughty boy who turned it all around. But there is an element of truth in that.

“But there is also a continuous line of hard work, passion, naive enjoyment and a ridiculous work ethic. When mainstream society says ‘you’re failing by our standards. You are at the bottom of the pile. You’re in danger’ you are bucking the trend if you turn that around. Raheem had the potential to do the wrong thing, to blow it.” Fortunately, he didn’t.

This post first appeared here and has been published with the permission of the author