Raheem Sterling's must-read article: ‘Tabloids just want to pull you down’
The Manchester City star has decided to fire back today with a very eloquent article in The Players’ Tribune.
The talented winger was answering recent (unjustified) criticism about his tattoos (with a recent disgraceful Daily Mail article praising Harry Kane because he didn’t have any), as well as reports attacking him for buying his mother a sink.
Here is a major extract. It’s recommended reading.
"It's sad that I even have to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. There’s a perception in certain parts of the media that I love 'bling'. I love diamonds. I love to show off.
"I really don't understand where that comes from. Especially when I bought my mum a house, it was unbelievable what some people were writing. I think it's really sad that people do that. They hate what they don't even know.
"A few years ago, I would let it get to me. I'd be saying to my mum, 'Why are they picking on me?'
"But now, as long as my mum and my sister and my kids don't have any stress, I'm good.
"If people want to write about my mum's bathroom in her house, all I have to tell you is that 15 years ago, we were cleaning toilets in Stonebridge and getting breakfast out of the vending machine.
"If anybody deserves to be happy, it's my mum. She came to this country [from Jamaica] with nothing and put herself through school cleaning bathrooms and changing bed sheets, and now she's the director of a nursing home.
"And her son plays for England.
"If you grew up the same way I grew up, don't listen to what certain tabloids want to tell you. They just want to steal your joy. They just want to pull you down."