Napoli ready to offer Raheem Sterling escape route from Chelsea nightmare

Raheem Sterling is reportedly on the radar of defending Serie A champions Napoli, despite Chelsea appointing a new manager at Stamford Bridge.

With Sterling having not played a single minute of football under former Blues manager Enzo Maresca, it appeared a move away was inevitable. That was until Liam Rosenior was unveiled by the club as the Italian’s recent successor.

However, the question on everyone’s lips in and around the ex-England international’s camp is whether Sterling will play under Rosenior at Chelsea or become another star to swap the Premier League for Serie A.

In this piece, we look at whether Sterling will follow in the footsteps of Scott McTominay and Kevin de Bruyne and join manager Antonio Conte and Co at Napoli.

Raheem Sterling has been absent from the pitch this season

Sterling hasn’t graced the pitch yet across the current 2025/26 campaign, despite being fully fit and available for selection following last season’s loan spell at Arsenal.

It’s not like the wizard on the wing hasn’t regularly participated across the beautiful game after playing in 17 Premier League matches last year. However, the former Premier League winner did fail to find the back of the net across those said matches.

Sterling was much more prolific across the season before last, as he produced 15 attacking returns after scoring eight goals and setting up seven goals for his Chelsea teammates across 31 Premier League appearances.

Going back even further to the 2021/22 campaign, the multiple-time silverware winner helped Manchester City win the Premier League title after scoring 13 goals and providing six assists.

Any kind of return in front of goal like that could potentially help Napoli retain their Scudetto shield and potentially their third Serie A title across the last four years.

Referencing the Champions League, Napoli wouldn’t be able to call upon Sterling’s services for the remaining two matches of this season’s league phase campaign. However, he would be available if Conte and Co decided to register him for the Round of 16 onwards if the Blues were to qualify.

Versatility is Sterling’s speciality 

Describing Sterling as a versatile player would be a serious understatement, considering the experienced player is able to play in no fewer than seven different positions.

Primarily operating as a left winger, he can also play on a right wing, a secondary supporting striker, an attacking midfielder, either side of the midfield and a centre-forward.

With nearly 600 professional career appearances, Sterling has scored 91 goals and provided 60 assists as a left winger, with 52 and 54 respectively as a right winger.

Finding the back of the net hasn’t only come from the wing, as Sterling has scored from all of those aforementioned positions apart from the right midfield.

Considering we have already taken a look at Napoli’s potential options on the wing, it could certainly suit all parties involved if a move were to materialise this month.

Could we potentially see Napoli scoring a hat-trick if they can get Sterling to replicate his form from not that long ago?

Can Sterling be the next McTominay in Naples?

We will first take a look at Scott McTominay, who moved to Naples looking like a player, a shadow of his real self on the pitch. Does that remind you of anyone in particular, possibly Sterling? However, the transformation the Scottish international has made in Italy could be argued as being miraculous.

Not only did the box-to-box midfielder lift last season’s Serie A title, but he also won further personal silverware after winning the 2025/26 Italian Super Cup.

12 goals and six assists throughout the 2024/25 Scudetto shield-winning campaign also earned him the accolade of being voted Napoli’s Footballer of the Year.

Surely, Sterling can find inspiration in McTominay’s ongoing story with the Scotsman in similar form this season after scoring five times and contributing three assists.

Joining up with a former teammate in Italy

Despite not being a Napoli employee as long as McTominay, De Bruyne has hit the pitch running in Italy. 

The midfield maestro is currently on an average of scoring once every two matches in Serie A this season after scoring four times in eight matches.

He has also produced two assists in three 2025/26 Champions League phase games after signing on a free transfer from former Premier League winners Manchester City. 

The Belgian was certainly a fans’ favourite at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium after becoming the second-highest-ever contributor in assists (119) behind only Premier League royalty Ryan Giggs.

It didn’t take him long to get his experienced hands on another piece of silverware, either, after, alongside McTominay, lifting the 2025/26 Italian Super Cup Winner. 

Like Sterling, his former teammate, is a serial silverware successor with six Premier League titles, a Champions League, and two FA Cups, to name a few. 

That therefore begs the question of if Sterling and De Bruyne can help Napoli retain their Serie A title?

Sterling has every chance of starting for Napoli

Napoli manager Antonio Conte seems happy switching his wide options week-in-week-out, with Matteo Politano, Eljif Elmas, Noa Lang, and David Neres taking turns playing either side of Napoli’s forward line.

Taking a dive deeper into who appears to be Conte’s first-choice winger, natural or inverted on paper, it appears that would be Politano.

The Italian international has participated in the highest number of matches this season, with 21 under his belt, in addition to starting the most games with 15. Then it becomes slightly more debatable between Neres, Elmas, and Lang.

Elmas and Lang come in joint second with 18 respective participations across Serie A this season, while Neres comes in last with 16. In terms of starting berths on Conte’s team sheet, Neres and Elmas have both 10, while Lang has only featured seven times straight away from the kick-off.

So, that surely puts Sterling right in the mix for a spot potentially in the starting XI at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, if a move does materialise in the January transfer window.

Any concerns over Chelsea breaching FIFA’s loan regulations of not having more than six players loaned out to international clubs at any one time might not be a concern. 

Kendry Páez, who is currently on loan at Strasbourg, is now being linked with a permanent move to Birmingham City, so that could potentially free up one loan space.

Pre-match comments from the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium

Napoli trail current leaders Inter Milan by six points, but there are 17 matches still to play this season. If Raheem Sterling from a few years ago pops up in Italy, it could easily eliminate that gap down to nothing. 

Especially if he can replicate the form that McTominay and De Bruyne have been able to conjure so far on Italian shores.