Raheem Sterling possesses an "incredible" ability to rise to challenges and prove doubters wrong, according to England manager Gareth Southgate.
The Manchester City winger, who has suffered criticism during his career from within the media, was subjected to alleged racist abuse in City's Premier League meeting with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge In December and received widespread backing for how he dealt with the incident.
Sterling won the Premier League for the first time last season with City and his consistent performances under Pep Guardiola have helped ensure they remain in contention to win an unprecedented quadruple this season.
Asked what Sterling is like to work with, Southgate told talkSPORT: "The thing that stands out with Raheem, we worked with him briefly with the U21s, [before] he moved up very quickly with Roy [Hodgson].
"But he is so tenacious in his recovery from setbacks. His resilience at proving people wrong, responding in the right way to those challenges is incredible.
"He's gone to a big club when he was very young in moving to Liverpool [from QPR as a 15-year-old], dealt with that, got himself in the first team. [Then] a lot of profile around the move to City, he adapted to that.
"New players signed every summer and thinking well his place is under threat. So he keeps responding to those challenges, he's still only 24 years old."
The 24-year-old ended a three-year international goal drought with a double in England's memorable 3-2 UEFA Nations League victory in Spain in October and Southgate says that performance was a hugely significant moment.
Southgate added: "I think he's had a phenomenal season and particularly pleased again for him the performance in Spain in particular with us was a really strong one.
"He has got to be one of the candidates for player of the year I would think."