Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the usual suspects will be in the running for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award in December.
But if England beat Italy to win the Euro 2020 final at Wembley tonight then Raheem Sterling will get my vote.
His goals alone have put him alongside captain Harry Kane as England’s driver towards the trophy.
Kane, however, has always had the support of the general public. Sterling has had to win them over the hard way.
Whether it was the move to Manchester City from Liverpool and those claims that he was a greedy so-and-so, or the gun tattoo, the minds of many were made up.
The fact he didn’t behave differently for people, he was just himself, didn’t endear him to many.
And it didn’t help that the first half of his international career was unspectacular.
All that left us wondering whether or not it would ever happen for him at highest of levels.
Things didn’t look that promising when he arrived at this tournament.
He was coming off the back of a tough season at Manchester City, despite them winning two trophies, and having been mooted as a potential makeweight in City’s interest in Kane.
Yet under the spotlight he has shown bottle, resilience and stubbornness.
And he has played himself not just into fine form but, I hope, into the hearts and minds of a public who often vote for their SPOTY winner based as much, if not more, on an individual’s likability as their sporting output.
What’s impressive about Raheem is that he could have gone two ways at these Euros.
He could have said, ‘Sod it, I can’t fight this anymore, I’m going to drown out the noise by not checking social media, I’ll give my family a hug after each game and if we’re here for three games, four or five, people can say what they like because I’ll just go back to City and continue to pick up my £250,000-odd a week and win trophies, or head somewhere else’.
Or, he could have said, ‘I am going to show everyone what I can do and I will tick off every last bit of criticism — the lack of finishing, the lack of being a team player, the fact people think Jack Grealish or Phil Foden deserve my place — that has been aimed at me’.
He has gone with the latter.
And quite simply he has been our best player – and THAT is just great sportsmanship.
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So much so that we may just be witnessing the birth of Sterling as a national hero and someone who, like the more affable Marcus Rashford, could have a huge impact on the conversation about ‘Englishness’ and unity for 40 years to come.
The fact he has gained strength through adversity and turned it on its head, and become the conduit for England to get to the final and maybe win it, means he is the epitome of a Sports Personality of the Year.
His will be one of the first names, if not the first name, on Gareth Southgate’s team-sheet today and if the England manager opts to go with a 3-4-3, I’d expect a line-up of: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Trippier, Phillips, Rice, Shaw, Sancho, Kane, Sterling.
If he sticks with 4-2-3-1, then it will be Mason Mount instead of Kieran Trippier, with the one question mark over whether it’s Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho or Phil Foden on the right of the midfield three.
Whatever happens, in Italy’s Lorenzo Insigne, Ciro Immobile and Federico Chiesa, we will be up against the only quality front three we have faced. But the midfield battle is the key one and it’s how we cope with Nicolo Barella, Jorginho and Marco Verratti that will dictate how we do.
If Italy’s midfield have a foothold in the game we have a problem, so we need to look out for that in the first 30 minutes, then in the first 20 minutes of the second half.
The win will come from whichever midfield dominates and let’s hope it’s England’s.
