When the year 2020 began, everyone had plans for the year but suddenly, an unprecedented pandemic broke out. In the case of Raheem Sterling of Manchester City, he had set a target of the number of goals he wanted to score in 2019-2020 football season before the season was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Raheem Sterling is one of the finest footballers in the Premier League. Last season, he scored 25 goals in all competitions for Pep Guardiola’s Premier League-winning team and that was the best he has ever achieved as a professional footballer in one season.
In the outgoing season which has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, he planned to score 35 goals which would have been his all-time best and probably earn him the highest goal scorer in the Premier League.
The Pacing England international was on course to achieve such a milestone in his football career as he had already scored 20 goals in all competitions for Manchester City in December.
However, the goalposts became far from Raheem Sterling between January and March as he scored his last goal for Manchester City against Wolves just after Christmas.
Raheem Sterling Was Still on Course
The 25-year-old versatile player who can play as an attacking midfielder and winger said before the pandemic forced the Premier League to be suspended, he was already looking at scoring an additional 15 goals to achieve his target for the season.
“I would say probably I’m about 15 goals off where I want to be,” he said. “Those are the targets, to try and create good numbers but at the same time not just have numbers to have numbers.
“At the end of the day you want to have trophies to back up that season because 10 years from now you can score a lot of goals, but if I can’t look back on those goals as being important for my team and having a great value then those goals were pointless.
“There are times where, even this season, it was December, I was on 20 goals and I was not satisfied.
“At the same time, a lot of people have been saying, ‘He has been having an alright season’, but if you look at my output I am pretty much close to bettering my record from last season and last season I had a fantastic season.
“It is one of those where I will try to push myself and even when the pressure gets a bit too much we keep going and keep striving.”
Raheem Sterling‘s goals this season have helped Manchester City to remain second on the league table with 57 points below Liverpool which are topping the table with a massive 82 points.
