English midfielder Jack Grealish has jumped to the defence of his former Manchester City teammate Raheem Sterling. The new Feyenoord winger has already been on the wrong end of some strong criticism following his debut for the Dutch club.
It's been a difficult past few seasons for both men, in truth. Premier League title winners at Man City, they've both since had to leave the Etihad to keep their careers from stagnating any more. Grealish won a treble at Man City, but after that high peak, he fell out of favour under Pep Guardiola. The Englishman then joined Everton on loan last summer and had looked much improved until an injury curtailed his campaign.
Sterling joined Chelsea in 2022 but never found his feet at Stamford Bridge and left as a free agent this winter after a poor loan spell at Arsenal in 2024/25. He's now playing for Feyenoord, having seemingly taken a big wage cut.
Sterling Targeted After 'Disaster' Feyenoord Debut
With Sterling looking to get himself back on the football pitch, he opted to join Dutch side Feyenoord in February and has now played his first game for them. He came off the bench in the Eredivisie game against Telstar at Stadion Feijenoord.
Despite going a goal down, the home team managed to win the game 2-1. The 31-year-old only played 30 minutes, coming on with Feyenoord already winning, and clearly did not impress.
One Instagram account called FootballPark, which has almost 100k followers, we rather cruel as they suggested Sterling should consider retiring:
"Raheem Sterling’s debut for Feyenoord was not exactly a success story – in fact, it looked like a veritable disaster from the Dutch club’s point of view.
"The English winger looked like Bambi on ice. On a downward spiral since 2022, lacking motivation, and seemingly unable to play under anyone who isn’t named Pep Guardiola, Sterling is well and truly into his twilight years.
"Is it time to hang the boots up once and for all?"
It's true that Sterling struggled. After all, SofaScore gave him a rating of 6.5/10 as he touched the ball 17 times, lost possession on six occasions and completed eight of his 10 passes. But he only had 30 minutes to show what he could do, and having not played all season, some rustiness can be expected.
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Grealish Defends Sterling From Feyenoord Critics
Grealish was among those to spot the harsh post and the Englishman did not hold back as he defended his former teammate. The Everton loanee wrote back on social media:
"What a f*****g stupid Instagram post man what's wrong with you guys. Guy hasn't played or trained for so long. Ppl like u guys is what wrong with the world. Have some respect."
Fans weren't impressed by his efforts but a lot of the criticism was simply based on the fact that he didn't look fit. That's perhaps not surprising, seeing as he hadn't played for Chelsea this season, and he also could not initially train with Feyenoord as his work permit took a little while to come in.
After the game, Sterling reflected on his lack of sharpness, saying: "[I] haven't played in little bit, but just trying to keep fit. Been with the team now for a little bit, so it's just all on building a step at a time and trying to get to match fitness. Good to start your first game with a win, think that's the most important. [With] the targets that we're chasing, so a good debut."
He will no doubt hope to improve over the coming weeks.