Raheem Sterling has been regarded as one of the brightest young prospects to come from the Liverpool youth academy since the days of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. He made his debut for the England national team in 2012 when they were under the management of Roy Hodgson, but Sterling has been unable to live up to the expectations consistently during this period.
This led to his absence from the Liverpool team and subsequently the national team. He now appears to have found the mojo back, as he has been putting in impressive performances for Brendan Rodgers’ team.
Sterling has been a major reason behind Liverpool’s impressive form this campaign, which has even put to them as outsiders for the title according to the complete betting website.
Previously, they were regarded as one of the teams competing for a top four spot. Hodgson is expected to name the youngster in the preliminary 30-man squad that will be announced shortly.
It is even possible that the 19-year-old makes it to the friendly match against Denmark in the first week of March. England have a tough group at the World Cup, as they face the likes of Italy and Uruguay during this stage.
After years of underachieving with the ‘Golden generation’, fans will certainly welcome the addition of several young players to the World Cup squad.
“People like him emerging and doing as well as he is in a top team puts a lot of pressure on everybody else, because if you can do it at the top of the table with Liverpool then you can do it in an England shirt as well. I remember managing the Under-21s [in August] and being very impressed with him there, but at a time when he still hadn’t quite burst back into the Liverpool team. Since he has been back in the Liverpool team, his form seems to be going up and up and up,” said Hodgson.