Legendary: Stearman's Praise For 'Mr. Sheffield United' Billy Sharp

In the latest instalment of an LCFC.com series in which Foxes favourites pick out one figure from the folklore of Leicester City's next opponents, Richard Stearman remembers his time playing alongside Billy Sharp.

2020-12-05T16:48:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

05 Dec, 2020

Legendary: Stearman's Praise For 'Mr. Sheffield United' Billy Sharp

In the latest instalment of an LCFC.com series in which Foxes favourites pick out one figure from the folklore of Leicester City's next opponents, Richard Stearman remembers his time playing alongside Billy Sharp.

Sam Jones

2020-12-05T16:48:00.000Z

Legendary: Stearman's Praise For 'Mr. Sheffield United' Billy Sharp

In the latest instalment of an LCFC.com series in which Foxes favourites pick out one figure from the folklore of Leicester City's next opponents, Richard Stearman remembers his time playing alongside Billy Sharp.

Sam Jones

2020-12-05T16:48:00.000Z

Legendary: Stearman's Praise For 'Mr. Sheffield United' Billy Sharp

In the latest instalment of an LCFC.com series in which Foxes favourites pick out one figure from the folklore of Leicester City's next opponents, Richard Stearman remembers his time playing alongside Billy Sharp.

Sam Jones

2020-12-05T16:48:00.000Z

Legendary: Stearman's Praise For 'Mr. Sheffield United' Billy Sharp

In the latest instalment of an LCFC.com series in which Foxes favourites pick out one figure from the folklore of Leicester City's next opponents, Richard Stearman remembers his time playing alongside Billy Sharp.

Sam Jones

2020-12-05T16:48:00.000Z

When Stearman first joined Sheffield United - who host the Foxes on Sunday - from Fulham in the summer of 2017, he was immediately greeted by one familiar face - Sharp.

The Sheffield United stalwart, who has scored more than a century of goals for the Yorkshire outfit across three spells, carries a long-lasting legacy that will extend beyond his retirement when he does eventually hang up his boots.

As someone who came up against Sharp earlier on in his career, before becoming team-mates at United, Stearman witnessed first-hand the talents of the diminutive Sheffield-born striker.

Leicester Academy graduate Stearman started by explaining why he is such a tough forward to come up against and why he ranks so highly among his fellow professionals.

"He's right up there in terms of a goalscoring threat," the 33-year-old began. "He's someone that you could never relax around because he knew exactly where the back of the net was.

"You always had to be fully on your guard. You could never have a lapse in concentration because Billy would punish you and he's done that on countless occasions for the football club.

"He celebrates his goals in training, he just lives to score goals and still does.

"He's an incredible professional and I think that's reflected in the career he's had and I'm delighted that he's continued to play in the Premier League."

However, it is also his off-the-field personality and character that has endeared him to fans and players alike and is a big reason why Stearman looks back fondly on his time as a Blade.

"The first day that I signed at Sheffield United, I turned up at the car park ready to do my medical," Stearman recalled. "Bearing in mind I hadn't signed yet, Billy was also in the car park by pure coincidence and he made a beeline for me.

"We're of a similar age so we had just played against each other throughout the years, bumping into each other on nights out or various social gatherings. I didn't really know him too well but enough to hold a conversation with.

"He came running over and said to me: 'Congratulations, you'll love it here' and then jogged off! He was right, I loved my time at the Blades.

"Being successful helps, but Billy was someone who played a major part of that and was a major factor in terms of the success and enjoyment I had during that period."

Recounting his first season at the club, during which newly-promoted United finished 10th in the second tier, Stearman believes it built the foundations for the next campaign's success, as they won promotion to the Premier League.

Sharp's goalscoring exploits were on full show as he hit 13 league goals in 2017/18, followed up by 23 strikes in 2018/19, powering United to second place in the Championship.

"It was a first season which sorted of faded towards the end, we'd been in the play-offs, we'd been first or second for a few weeks and just couldn't get over the line," Stearman continued.

"Then we went again and fortunately got promoted in the second season. Billy was an integral part of that, the amount of goals he scored, I'm sure he'll tell you he should have got a few more, but he's someone who was born to score.

"I think he was born in the six-yard box, he was always in the right place at the right time, scoring all sorts of goals, scruffy goals, spectacular goals, headers, penalties, he had the lot.

"He's probably one of the most naturally gifted goalscorers that I've played with or come across. That season just showed off what he was about and the amount of goals reflected that."

During that season, on 1 January, 2019 to be precise, Sharp netted his 220th goal to become the Football League's leading goalscorer in the 21st century.

A month later, he reached a club milestone by scoring his 100th Sheffield United goal - the second time he had found the net during a 3-3 draw with Aston Villa.

At the end of that campaign, as United celebrated promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 2007, Sharp was named in the Championship Team of the Season.

It's an accolade Stearman believes was fully deserved for a player finally getting a shot at playing in the top tier of the English game, after spending most of his career in the Football League pyramid.

"Billy is Mr. Sheffield United. He's someone who epitomises what it means to lead your boyhood club. He's a hero to those Blades fans and rightly so.

"What he and the manager (Chris Wilder) have achieved together, as a captain, I don't think it was just the goals. He drives standards in training and not just on the pitch or at the training ground, it was off it as well.

"That team that I was a part of had an incredible bond. The team spirit was amazing on and off the pitch, it was really good and Billy was central to that again. He's a Sheffield United legend.

"He is that leader for the Blades fans on and off the pitch. He lives and breathes Sheffield United and he'll have a job there for life if he wants it.

"He's said he doesn't want to play for another club now, it's Blades or nothing. I can see him hanging around for a good while yet and continuing to score goals.

"Leaving the club as a young player and then returning to captain them from League 1 to the Premier League and scoring a lot of goals along the way, it's an incredible story.

"It's one I'm just grateful that I could play a small part in. I got to share it with him and everyone else that was involved as well."

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