Marcus Rashford has revealed how he was inspired by England team-mate – and club rival – Raheem Sterling. Manchester United ace Rashford has been making an impact on and off the pitch of late. Off the pitch, he was recently awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to vulnerable children in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic. The striker successfully campaigned for the Government to allow around 1.3 million youngsters to claim free school meal vouchers in England’s summer holidays. Manchester City star Sterling, meanwhile, has been a key voice in the fight against racism. Rashford says seeing Sterling use his public platform the way he has encouraged him to follow suit.
Marcus Rashford said “The most recent one was probably Raheem when he started speaking about the issues that he has faced, For me, Raheem showed me if you’re not happy about something say it and make people aware of it. It’s not a crime to tell people what you think, it’s probably the biggest thing that sparked change for me. Since Gareth has come in we have done a lot of work off the pitch, with people coming from different communities – these are the best players in England but everyone is from different places, He found a way to bring us all together but it was natural, it wasn’t forced and no-one felt forced to speak about things they don’t want to. And when situations have occurred we have managed to just deal with it but we didn’t deal with it as individuals.”
