Jamie Carragher has stated that he believes ex-teammate Raheem Sterling has the potential to win the Ballon d’Or in the not too distant future.
Sterling has stepped up his game in his last two seasons with Manchester City, scoring 18 and 17 league goals respectively and five in four so far this campaign. He has also dramatically increased his output at international level – after scoring just twice in his first 45 England games, he has eight in as many games since October 2018.
This contribution his not gone unnoticed, with Carragher purporting that Sterling “is a potential Ballon d’Or winner over the next four or five years.”
Carragher was also gracious enough to admit he was wrong to doubt Sterling’s ability to shine after his move from Liverpool.
“I never envisaged he would become as good as he is and thought Liverpool had secured a good deal to get just under £50 million. I was wrong. By the end of his career it will be obvious City bought him at a bargain price,” Carragher said.
“He is now in the top five or six best attacking players in the world, in that group just below Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.”
PSG star Neymar had been earmarked as the most likely to emerge as the best player in world football after the Messi-Ronaldo era, but his career appears to have faltered slightly, with many arguing his move to France from Barcelona was a backwards step with Carragher clearly one of them.
“I wrote recently he [Sterling] and Sadio Mane are the best left-sided players out there. I now rate Sterling above Neymar.
“His ambition, alongside Kylian Mbappe, should be to fill the post-Messi and Ronaldo void once they retire.”
Carragher also drew similarities with Sterling’s development over the last few seasons to that of Cristiano Ronaldo – a five-time Ballon d’Or winner himself.
“I would go so far as to say there is a similarity with Cristiano Ronaldo’s development at Manchester United,” Carragher argued.
“As he does not take penalties or free-kicks like Ronaldo it is difficult to match his strike rate, but Sterling should certainly target 30 goals for City in this campaign and look to repeat those numbers for the peak of his career.
