Calls for Raheem Sterling to be dropped by England are ludicrous as gun tattoo furore follows path of relentless criticism

Raheem Sterling pictured during an England training session with his new tattoo on Monday
Action Images via Reuters
James Olley30 May 2018

"I’ve got that face," said Raheem Sterling in an interview in March last year. "You know when you see someone on TV and go, ‘I don’t like him’? Some people have that face - and I’ve got it."

Now he’s got a right leg to go with it. It seems that some will not be content until every part of Sterling has been vilified.

It points to an unedifying aspect of modern culture which presumes the worst about certain people and demands them to prove otherwise.

At first glance, a tattoo of an assault rifle looks ill-judged. Violent crime is a huge problem, with knife-related deaths on the rise in London, while further afield, Donald Trump is proving the latest US president either unwilling or unable to tackle gun crime.

England's midfielder Raheem Sterling displays a tattoo of an assault rifle on his lower leg during a training session at St George's Park in Burton-on-Trent on Monday
AFP/Getty Images

It turns out Sterling was not thinking about that. But the question many seem to be grappling with since the image was emblazoned across The Sun’s front page is: should he have been?

Should Sterling have been sufficiently aware of his status as a role model and the attention such an apparently provocative tattoo would draw to think twice about the end result?

At the very least, a player who has been no stranger to criticism may have felt it wise to do his best to keep a low profile ahead of the World Cup.

Yet, time and again, the 23-year-old has proved determined to be his own man.

Ultimately, given the adversity to which the inking alludes to, that should be commended.

His explanation that the tattoo is a homage to his father, who died in a gun-related incident in Jamaica when Sterling was just a child, and born of a desire never to touch a gun in his life, should prove sufficient for this furore to die down.

Calls for Sterling to be removed from the England squad are utterly ludicrous.

Yet, this is another mental test of a young man who has dealt with relentless scrutiny with remarkable composure.

At England’s get-together in March, he faced the media with candour, character and comedy.

That same month, he read some ‘Mean Tweets’ aimed at him with YouTube personality and rapper KSI. With good grace, he took some colourful criticism of his crossing and shooting and even agreed with someone who claimed he runs like a T-Rex.

He is used to this. Whether he should be is another matter entirely.

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