Grealish slams ‘f****** stupid’ Sterling criticism after Feyenoord debut

Everton winger Jack Grealish has jumped to the defence of former Chelsea outcast Raheem Sterling after his disappointing Feyenoord debut.

The 31-year-old made a spectacular move to the Eredivisie this month, but he has already faced considerable criticism on social media after his first appearance for Feyenoord.

After being part of the ‘Bomb Squad’ at Chelsea for two consecutive summers, Sterling had his contract terminated in January, which allowed him to freely choose his next club.

He surprisingly opted to move to Rotterdam to link up with former Arsenal and Man Utd striker Robin van Persie, who has been backed by Feyenoord despite poor results.

At the weekend, Sterling came on as a left winger for his debut against SC Telstar to loud cheers from the fans at De Kuip. However, his subsequent performance left a lot to be desired.

Grealish defends Sterling

His lack of impact was understandable considering that he had not played a competitive game of football since 25 May 2025, when he was on loan at Arsenal.

However, this mitigating factor has been conveniently ignored by social media and even by pundits. In his post-match assessment, Netherlands legend Rafael van der Vaart went so far as to suggest that Sterling wouldn’t make the grade in amateur football without his pace.

On Instagram, a post from FootballPark, an account with nearly 100,000 followers, made the rounds. The post portrays Sterling’s Feyenoord career as a “nightmare” after just one match, and questions whether he should retire. At the end, there’s a slide with his Feyenoord stats, which, of course, don’t make for great reading after 29 minutes of football.

This prompted Sterling’s former Man City and England teammate Jack Grealish to jump to his defence. The Everton winger bluntly commented: “What a f****** stupid Instagram post, man. What’s wrong with you guys? Guy hasn’t played or trained for so long. People like you guys are what’s wrong with the world. Have some respect.”

At Feyenoord, Sterling wants to try to regain his match rhythm, form and enjoyment of football over the next six months. The 31-year-old will have to compete with Slovakia international Leo Sauer, who has primarily been Feyenoord’s starting left winger this season.

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