AMSTERDAM, May 1 (Reuters) – Raheem Sterling was \u2060meant to be a marquee signing for Feyenoord as they battled for supremacy in the \u2060Netherlands, but with three games left in the season, the Dutch club are still \u200cwaiting for the 31-year-old to make an impact.<\/p>\n
Feyenoord continue their quest for second place in the league, and a berth in next season\u2019s Champions League, with a trip to 12th-placed Fortuna Sittard on Sunday, but it is not certain Sterling will be \u200bin the team.<\/p>\n
The former England international, signed on a short-term contract \u2060in February, has started four league games \u2060with three substitute appearances and is yet to score.<\/p>\n
He cut a frustrated figure as he was left \u2060on \u200cthe bench for the key clash against third-placed NEC Nijmegen last month and came on for the last 15 minutes in last weekend\u2019s win over Groningen.<\/p>\n
Feyenoord can no longer win the \u2060league as they sit 19 points behind already crowned champions PSV \u200bEindhoven but still have much \u200cto play for, with a tenuous three-point lead over third-placed NEC Nijmegen in the battle \u2060for the runners-up \u200bspot.<\/p>\n
Coach Robin van Persie called Sterling’s signing “one of the biggest transfers in the history of the club” but his form has not lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n
Van Persie, however, backed him despite criticism in the Dutch media and \u2060some scorn from disappointed supporters.<\/p>\n
The coach told a press conference \u200blast week he had a positive conversation with Sterling, who he felt was getting better and fitter, but said any decision on whether the former Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City attacker would stay next season \u2060would only be made later.<\/p>\n
Sterling\u2019s move to Feyenoord was something of a surprise but was seen as a genuine effort to resurrect his career after being sidelined at Chelsea.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a free agent, I’ve had, for the first time in a long time, the opportunity to control the next step in my career. \u200bI wanted to take my time to speak with clubs and their \u2060head coaches to better understand the role they envisioned for me and ensure that I can add \u200breal value in this next chapter,\u201d he said on arrival in \u200cthe Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Sterling had not played for nine months before \u200bhis first appearance for Feyenoord, where fans gave him a rapturous reception, but he has since been jeered by supporters.<\/p>\n
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMSTERDAM, May 1 (Reuters) – Raheem Sterling was \u2060meant to be a marquee signing for Feyenoord as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2271,41],"class_list":{"0":"post-7823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rotterdam","8":"tag-na","9":"tag-rotterdam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}