Manchester City and the rest of the footballing world were shocked when Barcelona completed the signing of Ferran Torres for €55 million, despite their well-documented financial struggles.
In November, Barcelona’s sporting director Mateu Alemany landed in Manchester to negotiate the possible transfer/loan of Raheem Sterling. However, in a strange turn of events, Alemany and Barca decided to sign Ferran Torres instead. While Barcelona’s interest in Sterling was well known, they probably signed Torres due to the latter’s composure and accuracy in front of the goal.
At the start of the ongoing season, Sterling struggled to break into Pep Guardiola’s starting XI and was only restricted to a handful of appearances. With that said, Jack Grealish has struggled to bring out the best version of himself in his maiden season with the Sky Blues and Gabriel Jesus, despite being the lone striker in the City ranks, has been inconsistent.
All these factors paved the road for the former Liverpool man to Guardiola’s XI and the 27-year-old has also found form at the right time for himself and the club. Consequently, the winger has managed to score 5 goals in his last 8 games while registering a solitary assist.
As per Athletic, it has now come to light that Sterling was open to joining Barcelona this winter, especially when the former La Liga champions decided to act on their interest.
Barcelona were linked with Sterling in the previous summer window as well but with their wage cap issues, the Catalans were unable to launch any sort of a swoop for the Englishman.
This time though, Xavi was said to be keen on bringing Torres to the Camp Nou, ahead of Sterling.
In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this season, Sterling admitted that he would be open to playing abroad if the right offer and the time came. The Englishman is keen on facing the challenge of playing outside his comfort zone i.e, the Premier League.
"“If there was an opportunity to go somewhere else, I’d be open to it at this moment in time,”As an English player, all I know is the Premier League. I’ve always known that maybe one day, I would love to play abroad and see how I would come up against that challenge.”Source: Express"
With City having attained a massive 11-point lead over second-placed Liverpool in the PL, the Cityzens are well and truly on course to retaining their Premier League title.
The ultimate focus would be on landing their first UEFA Champions League title and Raheem Sterling is expected to play a crucial role in City’s attempt to land their maiden UCL title.
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