GQ India – August 2019

166

Angels

PHOTOGRAPHED BY HUNTER AND GATTI WRITTEN BY ALASTAIR CAMPBELL

STYLED BY MICHAEL FISHER

Targeted by racist abuse from stands and social media, in the years leading up to last summer’s

World Cup, Raheem Sterling had been cast as football’s anti-role model, the profligate poster boy of

Premier League excess. Then, with a single incisive Instagram post, he flipped the narrative, becoming a

sought-after spokesperson for activists and causes overnight. At Liverpool, he won back-to-back

Young Player Of The Year Awards and now, with Manchester City, coming on the back of the astonishing

first-ever domestic treble, the pace of his ambition is only increasing. GQ spoke to the most influential star

in the English game about how leadership unlocked his potential, what it means to be young,

wealthy and black in Britain today and how he won the battle to define himself

O

n the train to Manchester I get a

message from a colleague: “You

should listen to this.” It is an hour-

long BBC football podcast debating

the question “Is Raheem Sterling

the most influential sportsperson in

Britain?” I click on the link. It is like

listening to a discussion about a statesman or cultural

icon, not the 24-year-old I see two hours later, walking

across a football field to meet me in shorts, white

T-shirt, Dele Alli baseball cap, ankle socks and trainers.

The bare legs show the gun tattoo that sparked one of

the many negative press orgies at Sterling’s expense in

the days before he morphed, in their eyes, from greedy,

cocky, flashy king of bling to, well, a cultural icon.

I had met him a few weeks earlier at the BT Sport

Industry Awards, where amid the great and the good

of the vast business of sport he picked up The Integrity

And Impact Award. PFA Young Player Of The Year

and FWA Footballer Of The Year followed. Trophies,

trophies, trophies. Medals, medals, medals. Influence,

influence, influence.

In the build-up to the FA Cup final, in which Sterling

scored twice in a six-goal victory against Watford that

secured Manchester City the first ever domestic treble

by an English men’s team (“The women did it first,” as

manager Pep Guardiola reminded us), Gary Lineker

argued that Sterling was, off-field, “perhaps the most

influential player in the game” and Ian Wright launched

into a paean of praise for the way Sterling had tackled

the issue of racism.

Influence. Integrity. Social impact. Not words

that get associated too often with the modern

multimillionaire Premier League footballer. As we

meet he has just been asked to go to New York to speak

at a Wall Street Journal conference. Charities and

anti-racism groups are begging for his attention and

support, and the benefit of association with a profile

any politician would die for – this just a couple of

years after a period when you couldn’t pick up a paper

without reading about something Sterling had done to

offend the tabloid morality of modern Britain. Eating a

Greggs pasty... in a Bentley. Shock. Flying on Easyjet.

Horror. The favourite thrown up in my research was

IN LEAGUE WITH THE