Raheem Sterling is coming off the best statistical season of his professional career with Manchester City. The England winger lifted the domestic treble with the Citizens and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
With an open summer ahead, Sterling has finally been able to rest after a busy European season. While at the Wall Street Journal Everything Festival, Sterling admitted that soccer is growing in the U.S. and also stated he would consider a stop in Major League Soccer one day.
“English football has grown massively over here,” Sterling said via ESPN. “It wasn’t like that in the past, and it’ll continue to get bigger. I was surprised even just popping out to the shops and being recognized by one or two people. I didn’t expect that over here.”
Sterling scored 25 goals and added 15 assists in 51 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side in all competitions. He’s also becoming more involved with the issue of racism over in England, calling for leagues to start punishing fans for their actions at matches.
The 24-year-old has played for Liverpool and Manchester City so far during his career, winning two recent titles with the Citizens. Sterling, a winner of 49 caps with the England National Team, would become one of the latest overseas imports to join MLS should he decide to make a move from England.
“This is a country I would, one day, love to be able to come to,” Sterling said. “Your weather is a lot better than ours. Hopefully one day I can have my family over here.”
“There’s always games on our television at the training ground. For sure, it [MLS] is growing in the UK, and people are really taking it in and want to come over. Hopefully I will have a career here as well.”
I really wish SBI and other American soccer blogs would stop reporting these kinds of stories. It makes American soccer and MLS sound so desperate to get worked up about some vague comment made by a high caliber foreign player that he might consider coming to play in the US when he has just a little bit left in the tank.
If you’ve ever lived overseas, you would know it’s not newsworthy that foreigners want to experience a slice of American life. MLS is at least a decade removed from needing to be propped up by high priced foreign players; start acting like it.
Wow, and he told a mother she had a really cute baby too ?
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Does he want to come play for the Sounders or not? No. OK. Good luck with Man City, they should be able to win their third.
I hope you make progress on the racism thing, I doubt you do, I really hope you do, I just doubt it….so maybe consider the Sounders when your contract expires.
Pretty sure he’s not going to say to journalists in the US, “No, I would never consider playing in MLS ever.”