Pre tournament we all remember the talk of Sterlings new tattoo. Criticism of the player included the suggestion a guy who lost his father to gun crime, was promoting guns. Born in Kingston, Jamaica the England International has never been fully embraced by the English media since his move from Liverpool in 2015.
The M-16 tattoo is just the latest reason found to point a critical finger at the 23 year old. Yet the same outlets were not as critical of Liverpool defender Alberto Moreno when he displayed his new tattoo, a well groomed Ape with a gun. Tattoos are deeply personal things, for the most part, and have special meaning to the wearer. For Raheem his tattoo is something which is personal to him and I don't think its promoting gun violence.
Jay Bothroyd has his own arsenal of weapons including a knife, hand grenade and two guns down one side of his body. That generated its own mumblings at the time, but nothing as loud as the backlash for Sterling. Meanwhile Damien Delany displays a picture of a clown with a gun pointed in its mouth.
Lavezzi, of Argentina, has a gun tattoo but also has a Jesus tattoo, so that balances it out I'm sure. Argentina are only a few percentage points behind America in gun deaths per 100,000 where guns and religion are hot topics for both countries.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has playing cards on his body, but no one accuses him of promoting gambling, despite that being a bigger concern, affecting more of the population that guns. That's because the link would be ridiculous.
Controversy has not been too far away from the young England man though with Raheem charged with assaulting his then girlfriend while playing for Liverpool. The BBC, at the time, described Raheem as 'Mr Sterling, a winger, has appeared for Liverpool 43 times and has one cap for England'. The report seemed fair, and reported the reason the case was dropped due to 'disappointing evidence from the defendant'.
Meanwhile the Sun referred to him as 'Liverpool footie whizz kid' before his trial had begun and he'd been cleared. With the tattoo issue they were not as ready to hear all the evidence before forming judgment, which led to Gary Lineker to call their treatment of him 'disgusting'.
Stories of an excessive lifestyle have been front and center of the back pages in recent times and his love of 'bling'. Reading and listening to interviews though I see a guy with his feet mostly on the ground. Yes he has cars and a nice house, but which Premier League star doesn't?
Being comfortable, and having his family enjoy comfort seems to be Raheems biggest driver and, after hearing stories from his youth, you can understand that desire. Sterling says that fifteen years ago they were cleaning toilets and getting breakfast out of a vending machine.
He comes from a close knit family with his grandmother taking care of him and his siblings while their mother moved to England and started to make a life for them. Joining their mother in London it would be his older sister who would go to training with him at QPR while their mother worked.
Now, he has been able to buy his mother a house and who holds that against him? Donating a substantial amount to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire he is a guy with a good heart and feet on the ground.
Since his move to Manchester City though the poor treatment of Raheem has increased I think. It could be that I, as a Manchester City fan have just noticed it more, but I doubt it. Slating his ability to put the ball away the Englishman scored 18 League goals, putting him third in the Premier League behind Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy of top scoring Englishmen.
He was the top Englishman in assists, fourth overall behind three Manchester City team mates. Ahead by one assist of Dele Alli and six ahead of other England team mates including Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford.
But that was in the Premier League, in a side which dominated the domestic scene for pretty much all the season. A century of points, most wins, most goals and a whole bunch of records fell to Manchester City last season. A dominating Manchester City side who played Raheem Sterling in 33 of their 38 League games. But what about the World Cup. Russia 2018 has seen Raheem play two games so far, and two post match thoughts which were dominated by discussions of dropping Raheem.
Yet the Englishman has been involved in both games, assisting in the Jesse Lingard wonder goal and going close in the same game. His header was saved by the Panamanian keeper, but fell to John Stones, who scored. In his two games, or 158 minutes, Raheem has made 43 passes had that assist, had one shot on target and one off target.
Other similar players, both age, position and expectation Raheem isn't too far behind. Dele Alli has only played one game, but has only 22 passes, no assists and he only managed the one shot on target. Jesse Lingard, scored that goal of course, but has no assists with 50% of his attempts in the two games being off target.
Moving to other countries, you have Bernardo Silva. Playing three games for Portugal he has had no shots on target and no assists despite playing 148 minutes in a group facing Iran and Morocco. Even Frenchman Mbappe was saved by having a simple tap in to give him his only goal so far in three games.
Playing 177 minutes the teenage wonder kid, signed for a record fee still hasn't set the tournament on fire. Yes, he had some moves which impressed but step overs are nice, substance in the final third is better. Imagine Raheem doing that and the fan reaction?
Even Argentinian Dybala and Germany's Timo Werner haven't impressed. For Werner, his tournament is over, with zero goals and zero assists and just the one attempt on goal despite being on the field for 266 minutes. That's four minutes short of three full 90 by the way.
Dybala at least has a chance of improving with Argentina scraping through, but currently is behind Sterling in all stats that matter. Yet the call is for Sterling to sit out in favor of Rashford. Ironically the England team sheet could see the absence of Sterling as both sides have already progressed.
Just a final thought though, Harry Kane has been on fire so far in the tournament. There is no doubt about that but I cannot help thinking that the headlines he enjoyed after the Panama hat trick would not have been the same if it had been Raheem. Most likely talk of two spot kicks and a touch he knew nothing about would be the narrative and a continued call for removal of the side.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Jordon Pickford escaped criticism with his failure to keep a clean sheet against Panama. To be fair the whole England side fell asleep as Panama took their free kick but it represents no clean sheet despite playing two 'minnows'. As England progress to the knockout stage, maybe that should be the focus of the media attention. And rather than berating a player who will, I have no doubt, make his mark on this World Cup focus on where the weakness actually lies, with a concentration lapsing Harry Maguire and the England defending.
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