News Americas, LONDON, England, Weds. July 15, 2015: Kingston-born, Jamaica soccer player Raheem Sterling is moving on from Liverpool to Manchester City Football Club for a historic 49 million pounds in transfer fee.
Sterling on Tuesday signed a five-year deal with Manchester City, ending an acrimonious transfer from Liverpool. The transfer fee eclipses the previous record for an English player – 35 million pounds – which Liverpool paid Newcastle for striker Andy Carroll in 2011.
Sterling said he was delighted to finally become a Manchester City player and is excited by the prospect of playing alongside new team-mates he describes as ‘world class.’ He passed a medical on Tuesday and will wear the No7 shirt at the Etihad stadium.
“It’s a good feeling and this is really happy time for me and my family,” Sterling was quoted on the Manchester site as saying. “I’m just glad it’s all over and done with and I can’t wait to get on the training field. The thing that excites me the most is the world class squad we have and knowing we have a team that is capable of winning things year in, year out. The more quality players that are around you, the more quality it brings out in you so I can’t wait to get started and play alongside them.”
The versatile, attacking midfielder, Sterling began his career at Queens Park Rangers for a meager 600,000 pounds before joining Liverpool as a 15-year-old in 2010. He made his debut aged 17 against Wigan Athletic in 2012 and went on to make 129 appearances for the Reds, scoring 23 goals.
In 2014 he became only the second English player to win the Golden Boy award – an honor bestowed by European sports journalists on the Under-21 player who has had the most impressive season – with previous winners including Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Isco and Paul Pogba.
Raheem also won back-to-back Liverpool FC Young Player of the Year awards for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 campaigns.
Manchester City Football Club is a Premier League football club in Manchester, England. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark’s, they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894.
Liverpool marked the loss of its leading talent with a terse 32-word statement on its website, which ended by saying it “wishes Raheem well.”
