Listen, the rest of the world needs to get put on to grapenut.

June 24, 2018 2:12 PM

If people want to write about my mum’s bathroom in her house, all I have to tell you is that 15 years ago, we were cleaning toilets in Stonebridge and getting breakfast out of the vending machine. If anybody deserves to be happy, it’s my mum. She came to this country with nothing and put herself through school cleaning bathrooms and changing bed sheets, and now she’s the director of a nursing home.

And her son plays for England.
posted by MartinWisse (23 comments total)

That is really lovely. I sure hope that England, er, remains.
posted by chavenet at 2:20 PM on June 24, 2018

Aww, this was great. I do want to try Grape-Nut ice cream. I just finished rewatching Gattaca, and this is a good follow-up read.
posted by limeonaire at 2:23 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

so my sister would have to take me all the way out to Heathrow.

Jeeez. That’s a hell of a trek
posted by nikaspark at 2:27 PM on June 24, 2018

This was wonderful, thank you for sharing.

Three buses. I'm willing to bet the commute to and from Liverpool was easier.
posted by Helga-woo at 2:31 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

What a beautiful tribute to his mum and sis. It made a girl sweetly cry in a barbecue joint in Texas.
posted by nikaspark at 2:31 PM on June 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

The amount of pure bullshit that the tabloids heap upon Raz is too much for one man to bear. I am amazed that he has the grace to only refer to it in passing...
posted by kuanes at 2:34 PM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

What a wonderful piece! I never cared especially how England did in the Cup, but now I'm hoping they go as far as they can (without depriving Argentina of their shot, please Mano de Dios don't let Argentina not make the Group of 16).
posted by languagehat at 2:47 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, and also: the piece is by Raheem Sterling. Name the author, people!
posted by languagehat at 2:48 PM on June 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m not going to lie. As a mother who has often been poor, I bawled reading this.
posted by corb at 3:18 PM on June 24, 2018 [9 favorites]

That was a really lovely story, thanks.

Interesting that Grape Nut ice cream is apparently a regional specialty in Jamaica, New England, and the Canadian Maritimes.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:22 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Support Raheem Sterling, because the right wing British press sure doesn't.
posted by PenDevil at 3:24 PM on June 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Living well is the best revenge. —R.E.M. via George Herbert

You live well, Raheem.
posted by chavenet at 3:44 PM on June 24, 2018

This is a really beautiful tribute to his family and says a lot about his own strength. I definitely got a little swimmy in the coffee shop reading it.
posted by PussKillian at 3:51 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

That was wonderful. I laughed out loud at the beginning with his daughter, and I ended the article having teared up. What a loving, lovely tribute to his mother and sister.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 3:57 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm all in on Grape Nut ice cream. Grape Nuts are my preferred yogurt topping - not too sweet and don't get soggy like granola.

I loved his writing style. Thanks for sharing!
posted by misskaz at 4:13 PM on June 24, 2018

Romelu Lukaku wrote something similar.
posted by JPD at 4:22 PM on June 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

My interest in football extends to "oh, that's what has my various officemates all excited today", but damn if I wasn't glad to read that piece. I hope that Raheem has all the success he wants, and that his detractors can choke on the bling (and ability to provide for his family, who damn well deserve it).

Also: grape nut ice cream is amazing, and if I didn't already have an ice cream project planned for this evening, I'd make a batch.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 4:23 PM on June 24, 2018

That was great, I'm even more of a fan of Sterling now (which given that I'm a Man Utd fan and he played for Liverpool and City, is saying a lot).

For those who don't know, the context of this article is really important. Basically sections of the English media have had it in for Sterling for a long time, something that is widely perceived to be because of his race. He's been criticised for:

• spending too much money on his mother's house, hence the references to her bathroom [this article has spoilers for today's WC games at the top]
• Not spending enough money: shopping at Poundland and Primark, even though he's rich
• Among many other things, his picture was used in an article about a footballer who turned to drug dealing, even though Sterling had nothing to do with the story (Carl Anka - I think this has been linked here before)
• Most recently, accused by the Sun of glamorising crime after getting a gun tattoo. He says the still-unfinished tattoo is a tribute to his murdered father (The Conversation).
• And much much more!

Football365 (recommended for football analysis with humour and anti-racism/sexism/homophobia), has a great roundup: Sterling, The Sun and racist attacks
posted by Pink Frost at 5:19 PM on June 24, 2018 [9 favorites]

When I was 11 years old, I was playing for the Lièrse youth team, and one of the parents from the other team literally tried to stop me from going on the pitch. He was like, “How old is this kid? Where is his I.D.? Where is he from? I thought, Where am I from? What? I was born in Antwerp. I’m from Belgium.

(Not to derail, but that Lukaku piece is also really worth a read. I've never seen The Player's Tribune before; it's interesting. Probably a lot less likely to get someone into trouble than Twitter.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 5:44 PM on June 24, 2018

Oh man, the bit at the end about being on the bus to Wembley...

There was some discussion of the Lukaku piece on Football Weekly the other day. Apparently, the Players' Tribune is "obviously" (if you're a journalist) ghostwritten, but the consensus was that the Lukaku piece likely wasn't.
posted by hoyland at 6:27 PM on June 24, 2018

I'm not a big follower of football, but I'm glad I read this. Beautiful, thanks for sharing. Another one sitting at my desk trying not to have a bit of a cry.
posted by penguin pie at 7:03 AM on June 25, 2018

I do like Sterling despite him now taking the wrong turn off the M6 onto the M62. He has to be in the right with so many arseholes in the right wing press against him. I hope he can knock a few in while he's in Russia. Good to know his daughter remains on the side of righteousness. Good post.
posted by biffa at 10:16 AM on June 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Great story, been loving all of their World Cup coverage.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:21 AM on June 25, 2018