Raheem Sterling believes Manchester City and England will reap the benefits of his big-money summer move to the Etihad Stadium.
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A prolonged and often ugly episode regarding the 20-year-old’s future came to an end in July when he finally left Liverpool and made the move to the Blues.
City made Sterling the most expensive English player in history and the fleet-footed forward is confident of repaying the eye-watering £49 million (Dh75m) transfer fee – something that bodes well for club and country.
Sterling said: “To go into training every day and see players of that calibre that I am working with, like Vinny (Kompany), Sergio (Aguero), David (Silva), Joe (Hart) – there’s only one thing that you can do and that’s improve with players like that.
“They’ve been around for many years, achieving stuff for many years. I am just happy to be in a squad like that and hopefully I continue my development and win trophies in the future.”
England take on Spain on Friday night in a glamour friendly as they step up their preparations for next summer’s Euro 2016.
Vicente del Bosque has named a strong, experienced squad for the friendly, but will be without Real Madrid star Isco who became the latest player forced to withdraw after club team-mate Sergio Ramos and Atletico Madrid’s Juanfran pulled out on Monday.
Elsewhere on Friday, Germany striker Mario Gomez is poised to play his first international for more than a year against France while Belgium will be without injured Marouane Fellaini against Italy
