Raheem Sterling’s Gun Tattoo Fuels U.K. Tabloid Outrage

“You can take the Editor out of the tabloid,” Mr. Lineker, the ex-player, snapped back. “But you can never take the tabloid out of the Editor.”

The sub-theme is, of course, the corrosive issue of race.

“The routes out of poverty are very scarce for the young, working-class black man,” Maurice Mcleod, a columnist, wrote in The Guardian on Wednesday. “Sport, music and entertainment do provide a path for the select few. The narrative reserved for those who make it, though, often sounds a lot like, ‘We have let you in, now don’t do anything that makes us regret it.’”

And on Tuesday, The Manchester Evening News quoted a sports journalist, Paul McCarthy, as saying there “is a section of society that utterly resents a young black kid for being hugely successful and being rewarded for that. Look at all the times there is a reference to ‘bling’ and ‘flash’ when anything is written about Sterling.”

“Then ask yourself whether the same would be written about a white player?” the journalist wrote. “It’s not overtly racist, it’s just that insidious feeling that someone like Sterling is fair game and that he should accept this kind of treatment.”