The 19 year old has been an integral part of Brenden Rodgers’ team this season with seven goals and five assists helping them to second in the table. But now Sterling says he has put his troubles behind him and is ready to help fire Liverpool and England to glory.
During an interview with the BBC, Sterling said that his daughter Melody Rose is “the best thing that’s ever happened to him.” but rumours that the winger has four kids would not leave him.
“It made people think badly of me, that I’m not really grounded, that I’m out and about and doing loads of madness,” he admitted. Sterling also commented on the importance of his mother even though she “thinks she’s Jose Mourinho”: ‘She’s a big part of my life – she tries to have too much of a say sometimes. I try to listen to her, because most of what she says is right.”
“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.”
Sterling also added that he’s grateful Roy Hodgson (the man who gave him his first senior Liverpool start) is now manager of England.
“[Hodgson] has seen me play and I think he likes the way I play,’ adds Sterling. ‘I’m grateful he’s the manager of England.
“He gives me good motivation to do well. He puts his arm around me and gives me little things I can do better at.”
Sterling said he still couldn’t belive it when he made his England debut and he would reach a personal milestone if he were selected to go to the World Cup this year. ‘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.”
“To then get called up by England for a World Cup? I don’t think there’d be a greater feeling, knowing you could help make the nation proud.”
By Phil Wellbrook
