It was a veteran football analyst and writer Brian Glanville who carved and crafted a perfect adjective to describe Phil Foden in 2018. According to Glanville, Foden is one of those rare promising youngsters, gifted and perfectly placed to blaze a trail in the game of football.
As Glanville rightly puts it, Phil Foden is a “gifted and precocious player, young players of his skill and inventive quality are pitifully thin on the ground.” Without mincing words, football has birthed another genius poised to surpass and break records in the game. The description by Brian Glanville may pale in significance not because it cannot perfectly describe Foden but because it’s somewhat unable to track the untapped bundle of skills embedded in the youngster. Foden is a Manchester City sensation with much to offer the game of football.
Philip Walter Foden, known shortly as Phil Foden, started hIs football career at a very tender age.
Born to Claire Foden and Phil Foden Snr., on May 22, 2000, Foden was raised in the middle-class suburbs of Stockport in England.
Destinies crossed, Foden was born into a family whose religion was football and the temper being Manchester City. Little Foden was passionate about kicking the ball. Golden experimented with his nascent football skills right from the hut.
Phil and Claire hugged Foden’s passion by getting him a complete Manchester City kit. At 8, Foden was enrolled in Manchester City, where he excelled among his peers with brilliant and clinical football skills.
Foden’s sterling football skills earned him a call-up into the England U-17 squad, where his meteoric rise to fame and stardom began. The youngster proved his quality on the global stage when he helped the England U-17 team lift the FIFA U-17 world cup in 2017. The youngster did not just lift the tournament but emerged as the highest goal-scorer winning the Golden Boot.
Foden’s brilliant World Cup performance earned him an immediate transition from Manchester’s youth team to the senior team. In his first year with the club, Foden ended up with the Premier League title with Manchester City, becoming the youngest player to win the trophy in Premier League history.
It was evident that luck had shone on the youngster as he had the opportunity of being under the tutelage of one of the best coaches in the world – Pep Guardiola. Foden went ahead to win four Premier League titles with Manchester City under Pep Guardiola in 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022.
Foden indeed has greater days ahead of him as he progresses through his football career at Manchester City.
Personal Life And Football Style
Foden is a left-footer and can function very well at left and right-back positions. He is known for his superb dribbling skills and is well gifted in clinical touches.
His coach Pep Guardiola says Foden is a special and unique clinical finisher. He can dribble off opponents from tight angles and create set pieces.
Foden is unmarried but has a 4-year-old kid named Ronnie Foden, born by his girlfriend, Rebeka Cook.
Awards And Trophies
Foden earned his first major football trophy at the age of 17 when he won the FIFA U-17 World Cup trophy for the England U-17 team. He was the highest goal-scorer in the tournament.
He was also part of the England U-17 team, who finished as runners-up in the European U-17 Championship.
At Manchester City, Foden has won four Premier League titles, the FA Cup, the EFL Cup, and Community Shield. He was a part of her Manchester City team that made it to the finals of the 2020-2021 UEFA Champions League finals.
Phil Foden has bagged many individual awards in his five-year professional football career. Individual awards won by the youngster include; FIFA U-17 Golden Boot (2017), BBC Sports Personality of the Year (2017), Premier League Young Player of the Year (2020-2021, 2021-2022), and PFA Young Player of the Year (2020-2021, 2021-2022). Foden also made It to the UEFA Champions League squad of the season in 2021.
After England finished as runners-up in the 2017 European U-17 Championship, Foden made it to the UEFA European U-17 Championship team of the tournament.
