Raheem Sterling is back home. Not just in London, where he acted as his own agent in a £45 million ($54.1 million) summer transfer to Chelsea. Not at Wembley Stadium, where he is the most experienced England player at just 27. But in Brent, the bustling borough where he is a legend.
On a warm Sunday afternoon in September, the Boy from Brent, as he is affectionately known, is in a stuffy van ferrying him around his old neighborhood, where he says “trouble is always knocking.” There is a camera in his face for a day-in-the-life documentary, but really the story is trying to capture his life in a day, and the compressed spotlight is clearly making Sterling uncomfortable. He often seems at odds with his celebrity—some would call that humility—despite spending the last 10 years as one. He cringes at being called a role model. But such is the shine of being the Star of Wembley.
And when producers ask him to look out the window and reminisce, to tell stories and point out boyhood hangouts, he quips that they are not even in his neighborhood anymore. The car falls silent.
