On Wednesday afternoon, Chelsea FC announced in a brief statement that Raheem Sterling will be leaving the club. This brings an end to one of the most expensive misunderstandings in recent Blues history.
115 goals in 293 games for Manchester City, four Premier League titles, five cup wins and 77 appearances for the Three Lions (17 goals): the statistics Raheem Sterling brought with him when he moved to Chelsea FC raised high expectations. That’s one of the reasons why the Blues paid a transfer fee of €56 million for the player wanted by then-coach Thomas Tuchel and gave him a five-year contract. But after three and a half years, the Sterling case is now officially history—though in sporting terms, it had long since been so.
Loan as a stopgap solution
Back in the summer of 2024, Chelsea pulled out all the stops to persuade several high-earning players to leave, including Sterling, who lost his shirt number, among other things. At the time, the attacking player, who was one of the top earners in the squad with a reported weekly salary of around €375,000, agreed at the last minute to a loan move to city rivals Arsenal, who, however, did not want to sign him permanently after another mixed season.
In the newly formed structure of Chelsea FC since the takeover by the US consortium led by club owner Todd Boehly, there was no longer a place for the veteran Sterling. Since then, the club has been operating more like a corporation than a traditional sports club. Players are increasingly seen as investments, with market value increases as a key indicator. Young talents are acquired, developed and, ideally, then sold on at a profit, less in the interests of sporting continuity than to optimize the portfolio. Footballers thus become assets, transfers become investments, and sporting success becomes a side effect of an increasingly stock market-like business model. An unfriendly model for a professional over 30 who was signed during the Abramovich era.
Isolated from the pros
So it came to a final break after his loan return from north London last summer. The 31-year-old was literally “ghosted” by coach Enzo Maresca, who has since been dismissed. He was banished to the U21s, denied access to the professional dressing rooms, and the coach didn’t even watch him train. “I haven’t seen Raheem since the start of the season because they train at a different time on a different pitch,” Maresca said in mid-September. His dismissal on New Year’s Day gave the discarded attacking player a glimmer of hope. New coach Liam Rosenior announced talks with him and Axel Disasi, who had also been sidelined and had joined from Monaco in 2023 for €45 million. But while the latter’s isolation was lifted after a “really good meeting,” Sterling’s status remained unchanged.
Mutually agreed departure
“We are currently in talks about various things and options that are arising in his career. Hopefully there will be more clarity in the coming days,” Rosenior said ahead of the Champions League game against FC Pafos (1-0). Now there is clarity: Sterling and the Blues have parted ways “by mutual agreement,” as the club announced a few hours before the last game of the league phase at SSC Napoli. This ends one of the most expensive misunderstandings in the club’s recent history. Where Sterling will go next remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that hardly any other club is likely to offer him a similarly high salary check—his sober statistics of zero goals in zero appearances this season did not provide any arguments in his favor.