Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has opened up on his argument with Raheem Sterling and getting booed by England fans in the aftermath.
The pair had words at the tail end of the Reds’ 3-1 win over Manchester City earlier this season, and it seemed the winger had allowed it to get the better of him on international duty.
MORE: ‘Still the big man?’ – Why Sterling chucked out of England squad for Gomez row
As per the Telegraph, Sterling was goading Gomez and trying to start a physical confrontation, but the 6’2″ centre half was having none of it.
The actions of the City star had him thrown out of England’s squad ahead of a couple of EURO 2020 qualifiers. This caused a large number of Three Lions supporters to boo the young defender as he was about to come on against Kosovo.
The Liverpool man has now talked about this and how it made him feel. “It was a difficult period,” he told The Athletic. “I enjoy football, it’s my passion, but there are a lot of things that come with it, like the limelight. That’s the thing that I didn’t enjoy.
“If anything it has made me a bit more stand-offish,” he said of the booing. “But in terms of the actual situation (with Sterling), what happened happened. We spoke. It was done. As a team it was done. So in my head it was done.
“It was just then that the game happened with the reception.”
Honestly – any England fan that booed Gomez should be ashamed of themselves – he’s a young lad who didn’t do any wrong, whilst Sterling acted like a spoilt brat.
For as long as I’ve known, some (probably most) Scousers are hesitant to associate themselves with England, and it’s stuff like this that really doesn’t help.
As the mantra goes, Scouse not English. If your first instinct when you see that is to laugh, you may want to do a little research into why some of us feel this way – spoiler warning: it’s not all about football.