Mauricio Pochettino, his manager at the time, wanted to give Sterling a solid run at the end of the game. “But the ball literally didn't go out,” said the striker.
Sterling waited on the sidelines for a full eight minutes. “All that time the nerves were building up,” he admitted to usopencup.com. “I've been playing football my whole life and I've never seen anyone have to stand on the side that long. I just felt a bit awkward.”
Even the television commentators on the call that day labeled it a “lifetime” to wait.
“You see all the fans, all the players –– players you've looked up to –– you're now playing with them,” Sterling said of the moment, when it finally came. “It's overwhelming.”
But Sterling never lost his focus or his confidence.
“Normally when you get subbed in, they give you loads of instructions,” he said. But when Dele Alli embraced Sterling on his way off the pitch, he had only four words to say. “‘Have fun, enjoy it,’” Sterling remembered.
It was the realization of a dream for the teen. But before Sterling ever dared dream of playing for Tottenham or making his Champions League debut, he was just a kid from nearby Enfield, England, tearing up his mom's garden.
FINDING CONFIDENCE
“I used to use my fence as a goal and literally just destroy it,” Sterling remembered. “I’ve broken a few windows in my time as well.”
Sterling didn’t start playing competitively until he was eight years old. He was scouted in primary school by his P.E. teacher who also worked for local side Leyton Orient, a professional club in East London with a track record of identifying promising youngsters.
By the time he reached secondary school, scouts from Tottenham were taking notice of his abilities – his link-up play with midfielders and incisive movement off the ball.
Sterling was only 12 at the time and it was hard for him to say goodbye to his friends at Leyton. But Tottenham’s training ground was only 20 minutes from his house and the competitor in him, eager to make his mark, won out.
“I feel like in football you have to grow up quite quickly in terms of being a man,” Sterling said. “You got to be mature.
“And when you're that young, you don't always think too much about all the other stuff,” he said, referring to his new environment at one of Europe’s top clubs, with stars like Gareth Bale and Robbie Keane passing by the halls of the clubhouse. “You enjoy the scenery, but once you’re playing football, that's what you're really thinking about.”
“Everyone knows you're an academy player and it’s kind of highlighted,” Sterling said of the experience of training with the first team. “There's these extra eyes on you.”
“I think when you first go up, you tend to be quite safe,” he continued. “I think that's probably one of the biggest mistakes a young player going up could make. You’ve got to remember, there’s certain attributes that you have that are why you’ve been called up, and I feel like a lot of players shy away from showing them.”
