Jack Grealish has come forward to defend his former Manchester City colleague after Raheem Sterling’s first appearance for Feyenoord was unpopular with many.
Raheem Sterling recently played in his first match of 2026 (Image: EYE4images/NurPhoto)
Jack Grealish has slammed social media criticism of Raheem Sterling after he endured a difficult debut at Feyenoord. Sterling, 31, made his first appearance for Robin van Persie’s side this season but struggled against Telstar in the Eredivisie.
Van Persie admitted he was not entirely surprised by the former Chelsea forward’s quiet debut, given the fact that the former England forward had been training independently in west London for months. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop many on social media from condemning Sterling’s display.
One post even suggested that the former Manchester City and Liverpool winger should retire from football. After seeing the post, Grealish, who played alongside Sterling at City and the Three Lions, couldn’t contain his anger at the comments directed at Sterling.
Grealish commented on a post criticizing Sterling on Instagram, writing: “What a stupid Instagram post. Hey, what’s going on?
“He hasn’t played or trained in a long time. What’s wrong with the world about people like you? Please have some respect.”
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Sterling’s work permit to work in the Netherlands was not initially accepted, so Van Persie moved Feyenoord’s training to Belgium for one session in order to integrate Sterling into the team. He was then brought on from the bench to help Feyenoord win 2-1, with Anis Hadji-Mousa scoring two goals. After the game, Sterling said: “I’ve only played a little bit, but I’m just trying to stay fit.
“It’s been a while since I joined the team, so it’s just a matter of taking steps one step at a time and adapting to my fitness. It’s good to start the first game with a win. Think of that as the most important thing. We have goals that we are chasing, so it will be a good debut.”
Before the match, Van Persie admitted that it would take a long time for Sterling to regain full match fitness. The former Arsenal and Manchester United forward said: ‘Raheem trained for the first time with the group last Tuesday.
“It’s been a few months since he’s been in the group. When you look at the choices he makes in the little moments, how quickly he thinks and switches, you know the other players see that and react to it too. That’s how it works.”
“We also want to show each other that we are good too. That was evident in the training sessions. In my opinion, he is a player of exceptional quality.”
“He showed it in the training session. I enjoyed watching it and so did his team-mates. He hasn’t played for six months, how fit is he in the game? It depends on how he gets through tomorrow.”
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Jack Grealish defends former teammate Raheem Sterling (Image: Getty Images)
“It looks positive. But we have to be careful with him. We will discuss it with Raheem. He needs time to be able to play 90 minutes.”
“It’s not Sunday, it’s not next week, but we’ll try to get there as soon as possible. We’ll do it our way, as soon as possible, but responsibly and calmly.”
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