Raheem Sterling sprinted down the left wing on to a pass from Cole Palmer. He bamboozled Max Aarons by shaping to cut inside before chopping to the outside, and stretched to score left-footed through the legs of Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto.
Unbeknownst to Sterling, doubling Chelsea’s lead that day would be his final contribution in blue, this Premier League win at Stamford Bridge in May 2024 marking his last appearance for the club who have continued to pay this 31-year-old Englishman’s wages ever since.
What has followed has been a century of waste, with Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Napoli the 100th game that Chelsea will have played since Sterling last represented them.
Late in the summer of 2024, Chelsea’s top brass decided that Sterling, who had contributed eight league goals the previous season, was not justifying his £325,000-a-week wages and that it was time to move on. The club spent the window trying to offload him but when a move did not materialise, there was no reconciliation between the forward and his bosses and he was dropped for the first game of the 2024-25 season.
With that, Sterling became the high-profile face of Chelsea’s bomb squad. It has been a sorry situation, even if Enzo Maresca never showed much sympathy as he once told us how his fisherman father had it hard, not the chap training separately on more than a million pounds a month.
During his time in the Chelsea bomb squad – players Maresca deemed unselectable which included Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga, Ben Chilwell and David Datro Fofana – Sterling even posted a picture of him turning up to training alone at Cobham at 8pm.
Liam Rosenior is more empathetic as a man-manager. Chelsea’s new head coach has already ended the exile of Disasi (Veiga, Ben Chilwell and Fofana had already been moved on), welcoming him back into first-team training following talks and with less than a week remaining of the January transfer window.
Raheem Sterling scores against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge in May 2024 – little did he know it would be his last contribution for Chelsea
Sterling has long been part of Chelsea’s ‘Bomb Squad’ – the group of players their former boss Enzo Maresca deemed unselectable
Blues insiders have appreciated Disasi’s professionalism after he missed out on a loan move to Monaco in the summer, including how the 27-year-old Frenchman agreed to help with their academy prospects, even playing for the Under 21s on occasion.
Disasi was involved when Chelsea’s first team trained at Cobham on Tuesday morning before the senior squad flew to Naples, but Sterling was not. There is increasing confidence on all sides that it will not be an issue soon enough. Chelsea are currently working towards moving him on permanently, once and for all. Sources are not disclosing whether that is via selling him to another club or by reaching an agreement regarding the final 18 months of his contract.
Talks are continuing between the parties, while we are told Sterling himself is craving stability and security after what has been a chaotic chapter in his otherwise successful career.
It is 618 days since Sterling’s last appearance for Chelsea, 247 days since he last appeared on loan at Arsenal, and 81 days since Daily Mail Sport last saw him in person.
That was at the training ground one Friday in November. He was walking out of the first-team building at Cobham alongside a suited-up associate, who we believe may have been a representative from the PFA. The players’ union have spent this season privately pushing for reintegration ever since he and Disasi were expensively deemed surplus to requirements. For Sterling, at least, it is looking like that will not happen at Chelsea.
But as Chelsea head to the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium without him, Sterling can technically claim he has been a regular at another famous Italian arena during his exile.
‘San Siro’ is the name given to the eight-a-side pitch at Goals Tolworth in Surbiton where he occasionally hosts kids sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays via his RS7 Academy, those ‘Standard of Champions’ classes costing between £25 and £35 for the hour, ages 5-8 and 9-12.
Advertised as teaching children ‘development, discipline, and growth’ and how to ‘train like the pros’, sessions are now also available at Goals Wembley, and Goals Chingford is coming soon. That is one way Sterling has kept himself busy while sidelined at Chelsea.
Back in September, Sterling posted a picture timed at 8pm of him training alone at Cobham
Sterling now occasionally hosts kids sessions at Goals in Wembley or Surbiton via his RS7 Academy, classes costing between £25 and £35 for the hour for children aged 5-8 and 9-12
Sterling’s charity, The Raheem Sterling Foundation, has also helped launch a new programme aimed at providing coaching opportunities for students and tuition for talented young players
He has now signed a deal to become a Goals ambassador, with Martin Cassidy, their national football development and community officer, telling Daily Mail Sport: ‘What stands out most about Raheem is how genuine he is.
‘He doesn’t just lend his name to projects – he shows up. Whether it’s chatting to the kids or getting stuck in on the pitch, he’s kind, humble and truly invested in giving back.
‘As the official Brent boy, it was brilliant to see him back at Goals Wembley, completely at ease, full of energy and connecting with everyone. He gave every school and child his time and you could really see how much it meant to them.
‘Raheem grew up playing tournaments at Goals centres and more recently through his RS7 Academy, so this partnership feels like a natural continuation of that journey. He’s a genuine community champion who understands the challenges young people face and wants to be part of the solution.’
Sterling’s charity, The Raheem Sterling Foundation, has also partnered with the University Campus of Football Business by launching a new programme aimed at providing coaching opportunities for its students and tuition for talented young players. Sterling described it as ‘incredibly important’ in a press release we were sent over the weekend.
Otherwise, Sterling’s weeks have been spent training alone, at different times to his first-team colleagues, without knowing when or where he will next play in a competitive match. As well as working at Cobham, it is believed the winger has continued using his own team, said to include England’s former lead physical performance coach Ben Rosenblatt.
The lack of travelling with Chelsea has also meant he can spend more time with his children, including his son, Thiago, who is in Arsenal’s academy.
Sterling was Chelsea’s first signing after the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover in what was seen as a statement of intent at the time. Boehly led it, buying him from Manchester City for £47.5million and making him their best-paid player. Chelsea have since moved to offering incentivised contracts rather than ones which guarantee gigantic wages as a base.
Napoli have been linked with signing Sterling in this window, mainly via the Italian media. They love an unwanted Premier League player, after all, with Romelu Lukaku, Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hojlund among those there now under Antonio Conte. Kevin De Bruyne is injured and so will not feature against his former club on Wednesday night.
Arsenal offered Sterling the lifeline of a season-long loan but he did not get the game time he would have liked under Mikel Arteta
Ask Chelsea supporters to name their biggest transfer mistakes and Sterling may be on the list
No secret has been made that Sterling has long insisted he would rather remain around London, close to his family. You can understand that, but can also understand why Chelsea might have found that stance frustrating, particularly as it is said overseas options were lined up last summer.
That is believed to have included a potential move to Bayern Munich, where Sterling would have played under Vincent Kompany and in the Champions League. He ended up staying at Chelsea.
Arsenal offered Sterling the lifeline of a season-long loan the previous summer. It is understood Chelsea subsidised his wages to secure that deadline-day switch. Sterling did not get the game time he would have liked under Mikel Arteta, and when he was used, he struggled for form. He and his parent club knew before the season ended that he would not be signed permanently.
Ask Chelsea supporters to name their biggest transfer mistakes and Lukaku may receive a few nominations. Signed for £97.5m. Sent on loan to Inter Milan, then to Roma. Sold for £25m to Napoli. Under Conte, Lukaku will now be looking to help his Italian club secure the win they need to remain in the Champions League this season.
Sterling may also attract some votes from supporters given how it all went so downhill, with their best-paid player running towards the corner flag in celebration against Bournemouth and then unwittingly into 20 months of oblivion.
