Raheem Sterling rejected chance to join UCL giants in the summer window to stay at Chelsea: Reports

Chelsea star Raheem Sterling reportedly rejected a move to Bayern Munich in the summer. The Englishman was not interested in leaving London, as he wanted to remain close to his family, nor did he want to relocate them to Germany.

According to a report in The Athletic, Sterling had options to leave in the summer but chose to stay at Stamford Bridge, despite not being part of Enzo Maresca's plans. The winger was told he was free to leave in 2024, when he moved to Arsenal on loan for the season, but failed to impress at the Emirates.

Bayern Munich were interested in signing Sterling as they had sold Kingsley Coman to Al-Nassr, and Leroy Sane had left the club on a free transfer to join Galatasaray. They were in talks to sign Nicolas Jackson from the Blues, when they made an inquiry for the Englishman.

The winger is now training on his own at Cobham, after Maresca made the decision not to add him back to the squad despite the failed move. Simon Jordan was on talkSPORT earlier this month and slammed Sterling for staying at Stamford Bridge and not thinking about playing regularly, and said (via CFC Online):

“Raheem Sterling had an opportunity to create a new narrative about himself, but did nothing. Done nothing, particularly for Chelsea, to justify the £48m transfer fee they paid for him. Nothing to justify the £300,000-a-week he’s on for Chelsea, besides the history of his performances somewhere else."

"He can compromise himself out of a contract and be prepared to accept less money. What he’s doing now, it would seem, is saying that the money side of things is more important than the playing side.”

BBC reported that Sterling wanted his £34 million paid by the club before leaving the club this summer.

Pundit claims fans should not feel for Chelsea star Raheem Sterling

Former Premier League striker Troy Deeney spoke about Raheem Sterling, claiming that no fans should feel sorry for the Chelsea star. He said that the winger had no future at the club since the summer of 2024 and knew he had to find a new club, and said (via CFC Online):

“My only frustration and concern at this whole thing is when we start feeling sorry for players who just had an opportunity to leave. The problem I have is, did any of us think Raheem Sterling was still going to be at Chelsea this year? So now you can’t complain. We knew this in April time, similarly to Isak. So all you have to do in that time period is talk about the compensation. It’s on both of them. Chelsea don’t want to do it.”

Sterling played 28 matches for Arsenal in the 2024/25 season, scoring once and assisting as many times. He never played a competitive game under Enzo Maresca, as he was dropped from the squad for the first few Premier League games last season.