Raheem Sterling has bought 550 tickets for Manchester City’s FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley on Saturday and donated them to his old school close to the stadium.
The 24-year-old winger attended Copland community school, now Ark Elvin academy, when growing up in London and is aware that many of the students come from similar minority ethnic backgrounds to his own.
More than 50 languages are spoken at the establishment, which serves the estate in Wembley where Sterling was brought up after coming to England from Jamaica at the age of five.
The academy’s principal, Rebecca Curtis, said she felt Sterling was a role model for her pupils. “To know he still thinks about the community he came from despite how his life has changed is really powerful for us,” she said.
“The vast majority of our pupils have never been inside Wembley, let alone seen such a big game with one of our old boys playing.”