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Manchester City midfielder Raheem Sterling has been unveiled as the new face of Nike, starring in a black and white brand campaign. The new Nike ad campaign features the slogan 'Speaking up doesn’t always make life easier. But easy never changed anything', in a similar vein to Colin Kaepernick's recent Nike ad campaign, which bore the phrase 'Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything'.
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Sterling made headlines last week after suffering racist abuse on the pitch from a rival supporter, prompting him to call out the media for its portrayal of young black footballers, saying it 'fuels racism and aggressive behaviour'.
The footballer, who has also posted the ad on his own Instagram feed, wrote last week: "[F]or all the news papers that don’t understand why people are racist in this day and age all I have to say is have a second thought about fair publicity [and] give all players an equal chance."
He posted the comments alongside two pictures of MailOnline stories – one about a young black footballer who bought a house for his mother "despite having never started a Premier League match" and one of a young white footballer who simply "buys new £2m home for his mum".