Raheem Sterling, Chelsea’s new signing, has already won over the support of the team’s supporters by refusing to sign a Manchester City jersey during the team’s preseason tour of the United States.
In a viral video, Sterling was seen posing for pictures and signing autographs for fans who were fascinated to see Chelsea’s new star player up close.
While signing autographs for Chelsea’s fans, a fan offered Sterling a City jersey to sign on and the footballer was left confused. Sterling paused briefly before dismissing the City shirt and continued to pose for pictures with the fans.
The Chelsea supporters present cheered, as Sterling rejected City’s jersey just days after joining the team from City.
Chelsea won 2-1 over Club America in the early hours of this morning as part of their Premier League preseason tour, which is presently taking place while they are in the United States.
Despite Reece James’ amusing own goal, the Blues had the perfect start to their trip with goals from Timo Werner and Mason Mount.
In the video, which has received over one million views on Twitter and close to 90,000 views on TikTok, only Sterling interacted with the fans.
Fans responded to the video on Reddit, with some making fun of Chelsea flop Romelu Lukaku, who last season while still a player for Chelsea declared his desire to rejoin old team Inter Milan.
The Belgian did return to Inter on loan earlier this transfer window after his relationship with the club and its supporters deteriorated.
A user’s comment that Lukaku would have signed the badge, put it on, and kissed it garnered a lot of likes for the joke.
One user questioned why people kept doing this to players who had recently transferred, while others questioned the purpose of the exchange and its rules. “Is it only done for the views the video will receive?”
“I’m not sure if players are permitted to autograph anything that isn’t owned by their companies,” another person said in response.
Chelsea will continue with their preseason tour of the United States by playing against Charlotte on Thursday morning at Bank of America Stadium.
