The forward keeps a large collection of opponents’ shirts hidden away, but plans to look at them with fondness when his career ends
Raheem Sterling admits he wants to get his hands on one of Lionel Messi’s shirts, even if he might not rush to put it on his wall.
Manchester City forward Sterling is building up a collection after swapping his jersey with star opponents following big games, but he keeps them locked away.
The 25-year-old says he is waiting until the end of his career before bringing together his silverware and framing his shirt collection.
Sterling intends to make sure “a couple” of City team-mate David Silva’s shirts adorn the walls of his house in Jamaica.
“I am a shirt collector but I don’t put any shirts on my wall as of yet,” Sterling told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“I don’t like people coming into my house and knowing I am a football player. I like to keep my house family orientated.
“But for sure when I do finish football and settle somewhere I’ll have all the shirts – hopefully many shirts to choose from – and pick my favourites that I played against and do a room of trophies and football shirts.
“There’s only one I really want and that’s a Messi shirt – when we played Barcelona I got a Neymar shirt, I think that’s the first shirt I ever asked for.”
Sterling also explained why Silva means so much to him.
He said that Silva, who is set to leave City at the end of the currently paused 2019-20 season, has helped him “be humble” as a player.
Paying tribute to the experienced Spanish playmaker, Sterling said learning from Silva has encouraged him to “keep that humility about yourself and carry yourself in a decent way”.
Sterling has developed into one of the most lethal goalscorers in Europe, having netted 17 league goals in 2018-19 and 11 this season before play was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the international level Sterling has also begun to fire in the goals, scoring eight times in his most recent nine outings with England.
But the former Liverpool star has insisted he isn’t at the scoring level he could be, saying he believes he has another 15 goals per season in him.
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