Raheem Sterling arrived at Liverpool in February 2010, signed from Queens Park Rangers for an initial fee of £600,000 when he was just 15 years old.
Few at Anfield could have predicted quite how far that modest outlay would take the club or how sharply the path ahead would eventually turn.
In his five years at Liverpool, Sterling developed into one of the brightest young talents in the country.
He made his senior debut as a substitute on 24 March 2012, becoming the second-youngest debutant in the club’s history at 17 years and 107 days, when Kenny Dalglish brought him off the bench in a 2-1 home league defeat to Wigan Athletic.
The following season under Brendan Rodgers, Sterling made 36 appearances across all competitions and established himself as a first-team regular.
It was as part of Liverpool’s attack in 2013-14, alongside Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge, that his Premier League career truly caught light, his performances playing a significant role in the Reds’ second-placed finish that season.
That campaign convinced supporters they were watching one of England’s next great forwards. It also attracted attention from elsewhere.
In July 2015, Sterling became the most expensive English player in football history when he completed his move to Manchester City for a fee rising to £49 million.
His departure from Anfield was greeted with anger, amid the perception that he had forced his way out after rejecting a new contract offer.
Eleven years on, Sterling’s career has taken a course that few who watched him terrorise defences for the Reds could have envisaged.
The 31-year-old is now without a club and, according to Foot Mercato, is open to launching a new chapter in France.
His profile has been offered to two Ligue 1 clubs in recent days, one of them Le Havre. The move would represent a striking new direction for a player who spent the peak years of his career at the summit of English football.
Le Havre, who are currently without a win in their last five Ligue 1 matches, decided against pursuing a deal.
Foot Mercato reports that the Norman club felt they were already sufficiently covered in the wide positions and did not see Sterling as a necessary addition. A second unnamed Ligue 1 side was also approached by the player’s representatives, only to deliver the same negative response.
The decline has been gradual but steep. Sterling joined Arsenal on loan from Chelsea for the 2024-25 season but failed to recapture his best form, managing 17 Premier League appearances without scoring.
He returned to Stamford Bridge at the end of the campaign only to find himself frozen out entirely and released by mutual consent in January 2026.
Feyenoord then signed him as a free agent in February 2026 until the end of the season. He made eight appearances in the Netherlands and registered no goals, leaving at the end of his short-term deal.
Sterling, who earned 82 caps for England, continues to train individually as he searches for a new club.
The report adds that more unconventional opportunities are said to be on the table, though the exact nature of those options has not been disclosed.
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