Raheem Sterling Quotes

Something good happens or something bad, I think, ‘What can I do better? What didn’t I do this year?’

I just want to be seen as a kid who loves to play football and to do the best for the team.

I had a rough year, my first year at Man City, a big club for a big transfer fee. There was a lot of talk, a lot of pressure, and I didn’t think I was being spoken about in a fair manner.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and score more, and it will be a matter of time. Once you get back into that rhythm, you will start getting balls that drop to you in positions where it wasn’t before. I do have that feeling that it is going to come soon.

I just don’t like losing, I don’t like losing, full stop. Even if it’s at FIFA.

If you’ve got a fast and strong defender, on the left, I feel like I can give him trouble going down the line, coming inside, or making runs in behind.

I’ve come to a point in my career where it doesn’t matter if I dribble or nutmeg someone. The only thing that matters is whether I was decisive, did I put the ball in the back of the net today, and did it help the team win.

I’m trying to make the box, trying to be more ruthless, more clinical, and trying to decide games.

I’m still short now, but when I was 14, I was like a pencil. You had to be aggressive and hold your own.

I’ve learned how to deal with pressure more. I’m still trying to achieve more in my game and add more to it. I feel like I’m still learning every day, and I want to keep on improving.

I don’t think I’m the most confident person, but I have people around me who, while they don’t say I am the greatest thing in football, have a general belief in me.

When I used to dribble, I’d be on the wing, and I’d control it with the outside of my foot – it slows the ball down.

I don’t talk about how many cars I’m going to drive, how many houses I’ve got. I just purely want to be the best I can be.

One of my friends, Bruno Andrade, was so quick, he just used to knock the ball past whoever he was playing against, and I thought, ‘Why can’t I do that?’ Until then, I would try to dribble and maybe try a stepover, but Andre would just knock it then – beep, beep – and he was so fast, he would get there first.

When I got the ball in the reserves, within two touches I would turn and look to attack my opponent, whereas in the first team, I was trying for the safer option. I needed to go back to basics. I needed to get defenders on the back foot again.

If I lose the ball, I want to get on it as quickly as possible and make up for it, whereas before, I would hide away and maybe only look for the ball 10 minutes later. I don’t want to give the defenders any break.

That’s the one thing I don’t like hearing, when someone says, ‘We’ll see what happens, see what happens here, see what happens there.’ Forget all of that.

Before I went to Liverpool, I was a striker and then sometimes a No. 8 or No. 10, and my thing was shooting, finishing, and long-distance shots.

I don’t want to be the one that says Liverpool can go on and win the league. But there’s a real belief and togetherness in the squad; we’re all working for each other. We all know what the dream is at the end of it.

Growing up, you watch players like Ronaldinho playing in World Cups, doing the business, and you idolise these people.

Obviously, it’s disappointing when you put on a shirt and get negative feedback, but at the same time, it’s what the fans want to see; they want to see you perform well.

I’m a person, when something’s not going right, I’m looking at myself and seeing how I can improve and what I can do better.

I’ve got that face. You know when you see someone on TV and go, ‘I don’t like him?’ Some people have that face, and I’ve got it. I can’t do anything about it.

Goals can help lift me to be one of the best two or three in the world, most definitely. You score the goal that wins the football match five, six, seven times a season: you are one of the best in the world. And that’s what I need to do. I need to keep being consistent.

I was looking at the sights, thinking, ‘I used to play there a couple of years back, and now I’m on the coach with the England team.’

Thank God I had football. I remember when it used to rain, all the kids would run outside and play football in the puddles, just splashing around, having the best time.

As a young boy – I was 20-21, around that age – I didn’t think I was being treated right. It can affect anyone, not just me. It was about how I bounced back, how I had to think and sit down and try to move on. Not let that defeat me.

I still remember not scoring against United. You always want to score in the big games.

Some things that started in pre-season and then, you know what, the season gets started, you kind of forget about it and then move on to football, and it’s strictly football until the season finishes.

England is still a place where a naughty boy who comes from nothing can live his dream.

My mum thinks she knows her football. She’ll certainly tell me when I’m not doing something right. At other times, she’ll say I’m not listening to her. There’s been a few clashes with her.

When it rains, nobody hides inside. You just go out and enjoy it. The other thing I remember is begging my grandmother for money to go and get a grapenut ice cream.

It’s never been about money. I talk about winning trophies throughout my career. That’s all I talk about.

Every player wants to win the World Cup – every country wants to win the World Cup – so anything less than that is not really a bonus. Of course you can take positives out of everything, but you won’t be entirely happy if you don’t win it.

My mum was working as a cleaner at some hotels to make extra money so she could pay for her degree. I’ll never forget waking up at five in the morning before school and helping her clean the toilets at the hotel in Stonebridge.