JAKARTA – Wing player Raheem Sterling immediately got a new club after ending his cooperation with Chelsea. Although he received offers from a number of top European clubs such as Juventus and Napoli, Sterling chose to play in the Netherlands. That’s why coach Robin van Persie successfully wooed this former England national team player.

Sterling is a free transfer status after Chelsea ended his contract last month. Although Sterling’s contract is still 18 months away, the club ended it sooner. The decision was made because the club was burdened with Sterling’s high salary after returning from Arsenal who loaned the player until the end of the 2024/2025 season.

How not, this 31-year-old winger gets a salary of 325 thousand pounds or around 7.4 billion rupiah every week. Sterling is the player with the highest salary, but he rarely plays. In fact, he is not even in the squad when Chelsea was handled by Enzo Maresca and now Liam Rosenior.

Sterling is also not averse to the club letting him go. However, he did not linger idle. Moreover, his agent has already negotiated with a number of clubs. Napoli and Juve have shown an interest in bringing this player who has 82 caps since representing England from 2012 to 2022.

From the English Premier League itself, there are Everton, Leeds United and West Ham United who want to recruit Sterling. Even West Ham was about to borrow Sterling before being terminated by The Blues. Not only that, Everton also hopes to bring in the player who won four league titles with Manchester City.

However, he admitted that he was not in a hurry to determine the club that was his destination. “As a player who has a free status, this is the first time I have had more time to make a lot of considerations. Now I am completely in charge of the next step in my career,” said Sterling as quoted by The Sun.

“I have more time to talk to the club and its coach and to better understand what my role in the team is. At least I can contribute,” he said again.

As a result, Sterling was even appealed by Van Persie. This Feyenoord coach successfully persuaded Sterling to play in the Dutch Eredivisie until the end of the season. Even Feyenoord previously gave Sterling a long contract. However, he chose a short-term contract first. If he meets expectations, Sterling is ready to play longer.

“I spoke to Robin in detail. I became convinced that Feyenoord is a place that makes me feel happy and I am valuable to the team,” said Sterling.

“Playing outside of England is certainly a new challenge for me and I’m ready to face it. I can’t wait to make my debut. I’m also grateful to Feyenoord, especially Robin and Dennis [Te, Feyenoord’s Technical Director] who were very patient in this negotiation process,” he said again.

Van Persie himself was happy to get Sterling even though it was only until the end of this season. “It’s really fantastic that we were able to convince Raheem and he finally agreed to sign with us,” said Van Persie.

“His achievements and ability in football have spoken. He is a player who has quality and is able to change the game. I am sure his presence will be a valuable addition to the team to achieve the target in the second round of the competition,” said the former Arsenal striker but won the Premier League trophy with Manchester United.

Currently, Feyenoord is in second place in the Eredivisie standings, so they have the chance to qualify for the Champions League. However, they failed in the Europa League and were eliminated in the qualifying phase because they only ranked 29th.

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