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. No more sleeping on the floor. No more stress. We’re good now. We’re good,’ he concludes, lyrically.

Both pieces have gone viral and the praise for each player has been unanimous. Gary Lineker called Sterling’s piece ‘wonderfully enlightening’; Piers Morgan said it showed a ‘different side’ to the footballer’s ‘flashy, cocky footballer image’. For Sterling, a footballer who is no stranger to controversy – and who came in for heavy criticism after it emerged he had an M16 assault rifle tattooed on his leg – it has done wonders for his reputation, elevating him above the muck the tabloids have been chucking at him.

The player stories are undoubtedly real. It does seem worth asking, though: did Sterling and Lukaku actually write their articles? The bylines on both blogs says so. But both these pieces appeared on a slick new website called the Players’ Tribune. 

For English football fans, these articles are likely to be the first they might have heard of this site.