Raheem Sterling's dream team: 'Surrogate' parents, 'tireless' mother and ...

Raheem Sterling's dream team: 'Surrogate' parents, 'tireless' mother and ...
Raheem Sterling's dream team: 'Surrogate' parents, 'tireless' mother and ...

As a schoolboy who dreamed of being ‘the king of Wembley one day’, Raheem Sterling grew up just a stone’s throw from the famous arches in North-West London, where one of the most well-known stadiums in the world was slowly being rebuilt.

The painstaking construction of the new ground ran parallel with a good chunk of Sterling’s childhood. 

By the time he was nine, he was walking to school in the shadow of the 436ft arch, raised into the air in 2004.

When the new stadium opened in 2007, 12-year-old Sterling’s youthful sporting career was already taking flight.

The 26-year-old’s breathtaking performance for the national team against Germany at Wembley this week brought the talented sportsman full circle, scoring a crucial first goal in the very stadium that filled his boyhood fantasies.

But, as the Mail can reveal here, behind his blazing talent lies a backbone of mentors, coaches and the incredible story of not one but two families whose unwavering belief in this gifted young boy helped create the star he is today.

The single mother who travelled to the UK alone from Jamaica to give her children a better life, and the ‘surrogate football family’ to whom she entrusted her son when his prodigious talents were spotted by Liverpool football academy, who signed him at 15 — so young he couldn’t yet live on his own.

As a schoolboy who dreamed of being ‘the king of Wembley one day’, Raheem Sterling grew up just a stone’s throw from the famous arches in North-West London. Pictured: Raheem and his son Thiago celebrate the victory at Wembley stadium

As a schoolboy who dreamed of being ‘the king of Wembley one day’, Raheem Sterling grew up just a stone’s throw from the famous arches in North-West London. Pictured: Raheem and his son Thiago celebrate the victory at Wembley stadium

Peter and Sandra Reeves cared for Raheem for three years after he moved from his London home to play for Liverpool. 

Like his mother Nadine, they were never in doubt about the young boy’s talent, drive and humility.

Speaking to the Mail exclusively this week, Peter said: ‘He had his targets and he was determined to achieve them. 

'He was such a nice lad, so grounded and polite. He never gave us a moment’s trouble in the three years or so that he stayed with us.’

Sandra added: ‘He has never got above himself. He came up a couple of Christmases ago to see the family and he was the same friendly, down-to-earth lad we have always known.

‘He has always remembered us. He has always loved coming back to see the family.’

Footballing fairytales are, of course, never straightforward. And Sterling’s journey has been particularly tumultuous. 

He never knew his father, Phillip Slater, who was gunned down by an armed gang in May 1996 when Sterling was just two.

When he was four, his mother, Nadine Clarke (left), travelled to the UK alone to work as a nurse, setting up home in St Raphael's, a housing estate wedged in an urban sprawl between Wembley and the North Circular Road

When he was four, his mother, Nadine Clarke (left), travelled to the UK alone to work as a nurse, setting up home in St Raphael's, a housing estate wedged in an urban sprawl between Wembley and the North Circular Road

When he was four, his mother, Nadine Clarke, travelled to the UK alone to work as a nurse.

She set up home in St Raphael’s, a housing estate wedged in an urban sprawl between Wembley Stadium and the North Circular Road, and put money aside each week to pay for flights for her children to join her.

Sterling was six when he arrived by plane with his older half-sister Lakima. Within days, he was on the street, playing football with other boys on the estate. 

His passion, skill and fierce determination were obvious even then.

At the age of eight he was spotted by a local youth worker and encouraged to play for Alpha & Omega FC, a youth club in Kingsbury, North London.

Clive Ellington, Sterling’s very first coach, says he knew the boy was a ‘phenomenon’ the moment he saw him play.

‘He just came on the pitch and was literally playing as if he was in his garden. But some of the shots he was taking were way beyond his age,’ says Ellington. ‘All the coaches stood there, arms folded, thinking: “What have we unearthed here?”

‘And that was all from spotting him playing in a playground when he was referred to me for mentoring. All that raw talent. It just came naturally to him.

‘One of the endearing things about Raheem is that whatever you advised him was the best thing to do, he would attempt it and keep attempting it. 

'He took it on board, came around and regulated his own temperament when things didn’t go well for him.

‘He had a wicked sense of humour and he smiled a lot but said very little.’

According to Ellington, Sterling refused to countenance any other career: ‘He didn’t talk about any other profession despite my saying to think about alternatives. He didn’t have a plan B, it was only football.’

It was his sister Lakima who brought him to the attention of one of his next coaches —Paul Lawrence.

Lawrence, his former coach at Copland Community School, still remembers Sterling as an instant star, despite his tiny

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