Manchester City star Raheem Sterling splashes £3m on five-bedroom country mansion

RAHEEM Sterling has escaped to the country - and splashed out on a stunning mansion with acres of land and his own wildlife pond.

The Manchester City ace has spent £3.1 million on the rural retreat which sits in five acres of grounds and boasts a paddock and its own wildlife pond.

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Raheem, 22, bought the five-bedroom 7,500 sq ft property before Christmas and has moved in with his long-time girlfriend Paige Milian, 22, who gave birth to their son Thiago this week.

The England international’s decision to set up home in a rural hamlet in the Cheshire countryside will delight City boss Pep Guardiola and also England manager Gareth Southgate.

A source said: “The fact that Raheem has shunned the bright lights of Manchester and chosen to move into a property in the middle of nowhere will be music to Pep Guardiola’s ears.

“It’s a 50-minute drive to the city centre and 15 minutes to the nearest town of Knutsford, so it really does look like Raheem is settling down.

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“He celebrated becoming a dad for the second time this week and is trying to stay out of the spotlight off the pitch.

“And it seems to be working as he has been one of the stars for City so far this season.

“It looks like he’s realised that having a calm life off the pitch will help him perform better on it.

“Some of his teammates have been joking to him that he’s a country gent because of the size of the property and the grounds.

“His neighbours are farmers and the only things he’s likely to see out the window are cows and pigs.”

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Sterling previously lived in a rented £3 million mansion in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and counted ex-United boss Sir Alex Ferguson among his neighbours.

But the £180,000-a-week winger has now moved to the stunning property which is surrounded by neighbouring farms and hidden down a narrow country road.

A local said: “We don’t usually get footballers moving in round here. They normally live in Alderley Edge or Wilmslow because there is more going on.

“But Raheem appears to have decided he wants to get away from it all. The biggest thing he will have to worry about is negotiating his sports cars down the narrow lanes without scraping the paintwork or the alloy wheels.” Sterling, who moved to City from Liverpool in July 2015 in a move worth up to £49 million, also owns a mansion in Kingston, Jamaica, where he was born.

The star moved to the UK with his mum when he was seven and started his football career with Queens Park Rangers.

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He moved to Liverpool in 2010 after they paid an initial fee of just £600,000, rising to £5 million.

Last summer The Sun told how Sterling invited two stunning sisters to his Caribbean retreat while Paige holidayed alone.

And he was criticised for returning from England’s Euro 2016 shambles and immediately appearing in a social media video in which friends showed off his fleet of luxury cars.

Sterling has bought his social worker mum Nadine a mansion in Surrey and he is still trying to sell a £1.5 million property he owns in Southport, Merseyside.