By Updesh Kapur/Doha
The knives are out and the only ones sharpening them are the media.
A British soccer sensation has been making back page headlines for all the good reasons in recent months.
Dazzling skills, darting runs and great goals have helped Raheem Sterling gain recognition in a Liverpool side that has remained in the top echelons of the Premier League table.
There’s little chance, however, of securing the title at the end of the season, but Liverpool have in Sterling a player whose pace and energy have ripped apart the opposition to wide acclaim.
His performances have earned call-ups in the national team and he is now a firm fixture in England’s squad despite reports of burn-out playing the game week in, week out.
Any mentor will tell you to focus on what you do best to elevate yourself and be better than others.
Focusing on the “beautiful game” soccer has been the drive for Sterling.
At only 20, he has a huge future ahead of him.
But the past three weeks have been somewhat of a turning point in his professional and personal life.
Firstly, he conducted a national TV interview that addressed his future with Liverpool. Clearly seen as a bargaining tool to secure a more lucrative contract, the interview was not sanctioned by his club and seen as a breach of company protocol.
In his TV outpouring of life at Liverpool, he claims he is enjoying his football, yet admits to rejecting a multimillion dollar fresh deal, thought to be worth $150,000 a week. This angered supporters who questioned his commitment to one of world soccer’s most iconic clubs. He said he was flattered other clubs were chasing his signature with two years still left on his contract.
Secondly, he was pictured in a national newspaper with a teammate smoking a shisha pipe which called into question the sportsman’s professionalism in public. While common here in the Middle East, the British press has reported that one single shisha session of smoking fruit-flavoured tobacco that is burned on hot coals, is the equivalent of smoking around 200 cigarettes.
The British Heart Foundation states: “Like cigarettes, shisha contains nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and heavy metals such as arsenic and lead.”
Thirdly, this week video footage emerged of Sterling appearing to have passed out after inhaling nitrous oxide, a legal high drug known as laughing gas or hippy crack, from a balloon.
With the story and images splashed across the front pages of the British tabloids, it has been a sharp U-turn in the image and publicity stakes of a young man who has many years of professional football ahead of him.
British papers are milking the unfolding events in the life of a young player that is gaining momentum.
No surprise then that Sterling is being, and likely to continue to be, parodied by fans of opposing teams at Liverpool’s away matches. A pocket of Liverpool supporters have already played foul showering abuse on the player for his TV antics.
It doesn’t help the cause of Liverpool Football Club which is trying to secure a top four spot in the Premier League for a place in next season’s Champions League. With just a handful of games to go until the end of the season, Liverpool can do without such distractions. The timing of Sterling’s actions couldn’t have come at a worse time when the club is also just one game away from the FA Cup Final. The semi-finals are being played this weekend.
Having put himself into disrepute over his actions, it questions whether Sterling ought to be released for Liverpool to earn a handsome transfer fee or allow him to continue playing for the club on a more lucrative contract.
Football has become a game of mind games between managers, players, owners, agents and advisors.
Sadly, in the case of Sterling, his embarrassing actions have only one party to blame – his personal advisors.
It was they who advised him to go on national TV to speak about his fluid situation at Liverpool to indirectly negotiate a more lucrative contract going forward. In the interview, Sterling said: “I don’t want to be perceived as a 20-year-old money-grabber but as the kid that loves to play football.” The move was aimed at keeping fans on his side.
But that perception was quickly killed. He hadn’t signed a new contract worth $7.5mn a year to play a game he loves every week. It truly has become a PR disaster as the media continue to splash stories about his Anfield loyalty. His employers only knew about the BBC interview when other journalists called the club for comment. Understandably the club’s hierarchy was suspicious about the timing and motive of the interview.
It’s easy to blame the media for the stories coming out. Any news outlet is hungry for a story, so when the shy-looking Sterling was put in front of the cameras, it made their day. Media cannot subsequently be blamed for drawing daggers generating stories on anything to do with Sterling Inc… He is the sports story of the moment that is gathering pace on the front news pages.
His advisors should bear the brunt of the actions taken.
We are in an era where the affairs of professional sportsmen and women, regardless of age, are being controlled by agents and advisors.
The days of commitment are long gone. Players’ agents are more powerful than the employers who pay star employees week in week out.
Money is the big talker. Sterling is at a club that players would die to play for. His manager has nurtured him well over the past three years into the talent he is today since joining Liverpool’s youth team in 2010 as a mere 15-year-old.
Sterling will have already faced the wrath of his employers for his actions. The only thing he needs to do, for the sake of his club, is continue to perform professionally and to the best of his ability on the pitch to earn the respect and applause for his talents.
Players growing up in today’s media frenzy are always in the public spotlight. Anything could be potentially filmed and photographed. It’s clear that a friend or acquaintance documented Sterling’s actions much to his naivety. Players need coaching on how to deal with the pressure. Money-grabbing agents are not the right advisors; that support system should be restricted to parents and employers.
While Sterling may have made mistakes, and this is part of growing up, the onus of responsibility should be with those who have nurtured him. Liverpool have parked discussions about his future until after next month when the season concludes.
Let’s hope, for the sake of football, Sterling puts aside the distractions and is allowed to shine on the pitch. He can take inspiration from some of Liverpool’s greatest players who prolonged their careers and reaped the rewards of a disciplined life.
♦ Updesh Kapur (below) is a PR & communications professional, columnist, aviation, hospitality and travel analyst, social and entertainment writer. He can be followed on twitter @updeshkapur
Liverpool star Raheem Sterling hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
