London: Raheem Sterling has said the storm over his gun tattoo has not affected him because he has been “through harder stuff in my life”.
That was a reference to the loss of his father, who was shot dead in Jamaica when Sterling was just two years old, and the hardships the England forward went through when he was growing up.
“People expect me to be really affected by it,” Sterling said over the scrutiny he faced after The Sun made the tattoo, on his right leg, a front-page story, with criticism from anti-gun campaigners. “I just find I’ve been through harder stuff in my life to get down by that, so that is the least of my worries,” Sterling said.
The 23-year-old conceded that he understood to a degree why the unfinished tattoo, which was actually inked in tribute to his father, drew attention but said he was surprised at the timing.
“I can see, most definitely, where they’re coming from, you can see a gun on someone’s leg, you are going to automatically think ‘what the hell are you doing?’,” Sterling said.
“And from my point, I’ve had that since August/September. I know there’s been pictures of it before, so it’s just a case of why, at this moment in time, does it get reported about?
“I don’t feel there’s an agenda, I wouldn’t personally say that. It’s just one of those things. It’s World Cup time and news is news. It’s put up. I don’t think it is against me, I’m just focusing on my training sessions and doing well. The boys have seen I haven’t been affected by it or my mood.
“They know I’m fine. If they did see something wrong, they would be the first to come to me.”
The support of Sterling’s England teammates has been important in the past week.
“The boys have seen me round the place and, quite frankly, know that I haven’t been really bothered by it,” Sterling said.
“It’s one of those things. They get reported and that’s it. But they see me in the camp and know I’m fine.” That is partly because of the grown-up regime that Gareth Southgate, the manager, has set.
“From the minute Gareth Southgate came in, he said the only thing we could control was what happened in our circle and on the training ground,” Sterling said. “In the past, I think we’ve paid a bit too much attention to the outside.”
England take the second youngest squad to the World Cup and Sterling, one of the few survivors from the 2014 failure in Brazil, said they needed to be “more arrogant” on the pitch.
“I’d say probably just controlling games and being a bit more arrogant with the ball,” he said. “I’m sorry to say it, but being more arrogant and more streetwise because we are coming up against some great teams and other countries have that streetwise mentality. They bring their play into it — you do what you have to do to win a game. Simple as that. Be streetwise and clever.
“You watch the Champions League final and Liverpool go 3-1 down and the way [Real] Madrid control the game. They have that winning mentality in big games, not doing anything silly. Not attacking all the time. They see the game out and, once we get that, I think we’ll be a really good team.”
England must show ambition in Russia, Sterling said. “That’s the one thing I don’t like hearing, when someone says, ‘We’ll see what happens, see what happens here, see what happens there’. Forget all of that.
“I’m not coming here to spend four, five, six weeks of my life to say, ‘Let’s see what happens and hopefully last 16’. We’ve got 23 players here, 23 good players, very good players. If we all have the mentality to say that we’re going to win the games that we win, what can stop us? It’s one of those, I don’t want to be the one to be like ‘erm, yeah’ ... no. If 23 players want to win it, then 23 players have got that mentality.”
So having failed to even progress out of the group in Brazil four years ago, would a quarter-final place — as has been mooted — be acceptable? “No, it won’t be good enough at all, because you want to win it,” Sterling added. “Every player wants to win the World Cup, every country wants to win the World Cup, so anything less than that is not really a bonus.
“I don’t think we’re looking at it like, ‘We’re young and can express ourselves’. We’ve got a massive tournament ahead and we’re playing for it.
“I feel we’ve got a good chance and need to be focused from that first minute. The plan might get ruined but we need to figure out what to do in each match.”
Sterling has taken the No. 10 shirt in the squad.
“It’s from my days at QPR, I know I shouldn’t mention it, but I’ve got a tattoo of it [No 10] on my arm,” Sterling said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do: wear the No. 10 for England.”
Fixtures
Thursday
South Korea v Bolivia, 4.10pm
England v Costa Rica, 11pm
Portugal v Algeria, 11.15pm
Iceland v Ghana, midnight
