Seventeen Premier League goals last season, three in one game already this term – Raheem Sterling looks all set for another stellar year.
The Manchester City forward had a standout campaign in 2018-19, being named the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year, the PFA Young Player of the Year and making it into the PFA Team of the Year as his goals helped his team win the Premier League for the second successive
year in a treble-winning season.
He has also developed into a key player for Gareth Southgate’s England, has been lauded as “special” by his club manager Pep Guardiola and, at 24, his best years are still ahead of him.
On BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, the question was asked whether Sterling could have a season that Lionel Messi – the five-time Ballon d’Or winner and regular scorer of 30+ goals per season – would be proud of.
Sterling scored 25 goals in all competitions last season – his highest in a single campaign – and he picked up from where he left off by bagging a hat-trick in City’s 5-0 season-opening win at West Ham on Saturday.
At 24 years and 245 days – the age Sterling was at the point of the Hammers game – he had played a remarkably similar amount of football to Messi when the Argentina international was the same age.
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Sterling and Messi at 24 years and 245 days – how their stats compare |
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Player |
Games | Minutes played | Goals | Assists |
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Senior club appearances only |
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Sterling |
322 | 23,739 | 96 | 68 |
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Messi |
310 | 23,725 | 223 | 90 |
The difference between the amount of assists each player had provided at that stage of their career is not vast – 90 for Messi compared to 68 for Sterling – but it is Messi’s goalscoring prowess that sets him apart.
While 25 was a career-high for Sterling, Messi’s lowest total in the past 11 seasons is 38.
For Sterling to exist in such elevated company, his numbers will need to improve significantly.
“Raheem Sterling is getting better,” former Arsenal striker Ian Wright told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“He is so intelligent in the way he is playing with the runs he is making, and his finishing is clinical.
“You can easily see someone like Raheem ending up with 35-40 goals this season because of the way he is playing, the chances Manchester City make and the way he is finishing.”
When Manchester City signed Sterling from Liverpool in 2015 for £49m, he became the most expensive English player.
That price tag came with a lot of pressure for a 20-year-old and so perhaps it was not surprising that Sterling was unable to make the immediate impact he would have wanted.
One person who never doubted him was City manager Guardiola.
In the summer of 2016 when Sterling was enduring a difficult European Championships, in which he got substituted at half-time for England against Wales following a poor 45 minutes, a text message popped up on his phone.
