England and Manchester City embody an excellent model for children with charity, professional ethics and brilliant performances

EXAMPLE OF STERLING

Danny Murphy has praised England and Manchester City star Raheem Sterling for their "excellent example and style" for young people with his driving on and off the pitch.

The 24-year-old received many accolades last week after tripling the Czech Republic's 5-0 win over the Czech Republic.

Sterling was at his best in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, but also received applause for his heartfelt tribute to the young Crystal Palace player, Damary Dawkins, who died tragically after a fight against leukemia. Damary was only 13 years old.

The Three Lions forward was a staunch supporter of Dawkins and took advantage of his social media presence to raise the profile of his fight against blood cancer by advocating for a stem cell donor.

In the United States, a donor was finally found for Damary, but he unfortunately died after a relapse twice after a transplant.

After the victory against the Czechs, Sterling also stayed at Wembley to visit the participants of the charity Football Beyond Borders which had just seen his performance at three goals.

He even signed his match jersey and offered it to their cause.

Sterling has evolved tremendously as a player since joining Pepe Guardiola's squad in Manchester City, but has also moved off the pitch.

And after years of negative headlines about his personal life, Murphy paid particular tribute to the former Liverpool star, saying there was not enough attention given to good footballers.

Jim White, host of talkSPORT, said, "We talked a lot about Raheem Sterling and his evolution on the field. He is among the top three or four in European football in goals and badists this season.

"But he does a lot of things on the ground, which, in my opinion, deserves to be highlighted.

"Not just Sterling, but no matter who, I do not think we do it enough, I think we're always ready to face players when they've done wrong, Sterling has missed some mistakes, but he's not there is no coincidence that he is moving both on the ground and in the field.

"Sterling – which has millions of fans on social media – is desperately trying to raise awareness about the issue of blood cancer and get tested, which I think is fantastic and shows its maturity and the fact that 39, he cares a lot of others the pitch.

"Sterling is not just great on the field, he's becoming a person that boys and girls can admire, because that's the kind of thing we do not talk about enough.

"He deserves all the applause he gets because he just looks great. He plays with confidence, he has this leg of strength, but he also works. He's only 24!

"I think what's always exciting is when you meet a player who goes up a gear and comes out on the other side in a positive way.

"Raheem is an excellent example for young boys, it does not go well all the time and it's not going to be perfect and when you're upset, when the fans of England are booing you, the media is hammering it for its tattoos or hilarious gas or anything, he had the strength to say, "I can overcome that".

Listen to what Danny Murphy had to say about Raheem Sterling IN FULL below …