A player who, for many, was in the running as the best in the tournament and whose goals - including the opener against Germany - almost took the Three Lions all the way to glory.
No takers for Sterling this summer
Fast forward to this summer, and another transfer window has closed without Sterling being able to get a move away from Chelsea.
That's despite having virtually the whole summer to engineer his exit from Stamford Bridge.
The now 30-year-old certainly hasn't enjoyed the best time of it in West London, notwithstanding an 11th-hour move to Arsenal last summer, which provided a temporary lifting of the player's spirits.
Though the transfer markets in Saudi Arabia and Turkey remain open at this point, it's highly unlikely that Sterling will consider uprooting himself to any one of those potential destinations.
It's worth asking the question then as to why a player who seemingly had the football world at his feet four years ago, now finds himself as persona non grata as far as elite clubs in England are concerned.
Just 19 Chelsea games for Sterling in two seasons
Since the 2014/15 season, when Sterling was still employed by Liverpool, he has scored a reasonably impressive 162 goals in all competitions and provided 98 assists in his 499 club games.
Only 19 of those goals came across two full seasons at Chelsea, however, and whilst at the Gunners last season, his return was even more stark; just one goal in all competitions.
Even if one pinpoints the loss of his place in the national team as the time when Sterling's confidence began to waver, he's been given enough of a run to warrant more output from him.
Often considered as a wide man who perhaps takes one touch too many when a simpler pass to a teammate may be on, his pass completion rate doesn't necessarily support such a view.
At Arsenal, for example, it was as high as 97.1% in last season's FA Cup, and only sporadically has it dipped under 80%.
Three times at Chelsea, that latter threshold has been too difficult for Sterling to reach, so one might reasonably argue that with the little continuity that the club have had with regards to certain players, such numbers are to be expected.
Training alone
All players need the rhythm that regular employment in the starting XI brings, and that's true for anyone - big name or otherwise.
The move to Arsenal unfortunately didn't work out as had been hoped, and with news that Sterling had been asked to train alone again this summer and away from Chelsea's main group, one may have thought that the Blues would be doing everything in their power to get him another loan move for 2025/26 at least - if not a permanent move away.
Of course, that's easier said than done when you have a player of supposed international quality that has only managed 58 shots on target in three years, whilst missing 28 big chances in the same time frame too.
A best shot conversion rate of 21.6% over the past three seasons also tells its own story, whilst an xG of precisely 1.4 for Arsenal in the 2024/25 Premier League is, frankly, incredibly embarrassing from Sterling.
No longer willing to beat players?
Delving a little deeper, it's possible to see just how introverted the player has become in terms of his willingness to beat players.
The data evidences that in the same three-year period (2022/23 to 2024/25), Sterling only took on his opponent 88 times in all competitions and played just 22 through balls to a teammate. Perhaps most worrying of all is that he was unable to complete any passes when under pressure.
Ultimately, football players are only at their best when they are clearly enjoying their football, and it's obvious to anyone with even just a passing interest in the beautiful game that Raheem Sterling isn't doing that, and hasn't been for some while.
The difficulty for him now is that the less he plays the more rusty he will become, and with two years still left on his Chelsea contract, there's a big - and semi-urgent - decision for him to make.
Time for Sterling to swallow his pride?
Taking a step down to move forward, perhaps as soon as next January, might not be the worst idea in the world, even if that means he has to swallow his professional pride.
Not doing so and digging his heels in to try and prove a point might be considered laudable in some quarters, but it's also pretty ill-advised for a player in his current predicament.
An acceptance from Sterling that his best years are behind him needs to be the reset point, and if he can admit that to himself and use it as a motivational tool for what's ahead, an opportunity remains for him to resurrect his fast-fading career.
