Raheem Sterling’s article is brilliant but did he actually write it?

England’s Raheem Sterling has underwhelmed so far at the World Cup. Off the pitch, however, he is winning new fans. The Manchester City winger’s essay blog, ‘It was all a dream’, tells the story of his father’s murder and his mother’s subsequent struggles to make ends meet. It’s brilliantly written, tugs at the heart strings and there’s a happy ending: Sterling, the ten-year-old boy who had to help his mother clean hotel toilets, now earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a week and is idolised by football fans the world over.

Sterling isn’t the only footballer recently to have shown a previously unknown talent for writing. His fellow Premier League player Romelu Lukaku’s article, ‘I’ve got some things to say’, follows the Sterling formula: it’s a readable, witty and emotional tale of rags to footballing riches. By the end, we learn that Lukaku’s mother, who couldn’t afford hot water or electricity when the Belgian striker was growing up, no longer has to worry: ’No more rats in the apartment.