It is a little early to be asking Phil Foden where it all went wrong. Nevertheless, a player framed as the future of the English game when he appeared fully-formed at 17 years old, is tethered to an altogether different trajectory now.
Foden turns 26 in May, which is hard to square with the sense of him that still lingers, a player for the future. Perhaps there is a lesson here for Max Dowman at Arsenal. The storied vista predicted is never given.
Were he to spend the rest of his career potless, Foden would still have banked a hall-of-fame payload, of course. A total of 17 major trophies in more than 300 first-team appearances since making his debut for Manchester City almost nine years ago is Ryan Giggs-like in scale and garnered in half the time.
Many feel Pep Guardiola is to blame for his lack of game time (Photo: Getty)From the moment he won the Under-17 World Cup with England in 2017 progression to the senior team felt routine. Such was the power of the Foden brand, some advocates pressed for his inclusion in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the Russia World Cup in 2018.
Southgate, perhaps wisely, resisted until 2020 against Iceland. To date he has amassed 47 caps, just six shy of the total achieved by Glenn Hoddle, another hyper-gifted phenom who ended his career an unresolved quandary for England.
As the season enters its decisive stage, instead of setting the agenda for club and country Foden is the recipient of sympathy votes and the subject of debates about his future at the Etihad.
He was an unused sub against Real Madrid in a game of super significance to City in the Champions League a week ago and was made to wait until the 90th minute before stretching his legs in a perfunctory Carabao Cup cameo against Arsenal at Wembley.
“I felt sad for him,” Wayne Rooney said.
“Not sad because he is coming on in a cup final. There was a game a few days ago when he didn’t even get on the pitch.
“If that was Max Dowman coming on at the end, you would think, good experience. But to see Phil Foden coming on in a cup final, it felt like a charity sub.”
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Kevin Garside: Mo Salah is a Muslim icon in toxic Britain Pete Hall: Ignore Gary Neville, Man City’s maverick is saving the Premier LeagueThough Foden clings to a place in this England squad, it is hard to see how he might tip the utilitarian thinking of Thomas Tuchel to start against either Uruguay of Japan, and therefore how he retains his interest when the squad is whittled down for the World Cup at the end of May.
Foden seemed to recover his station after injury and personal issues ruined last season. He even survived the arrival of Rayan Cherki in the summer to feature heavily in the autumn and was arguably the outstanding performer in City’s Manchester derby triumph at the Etihad in September, scoring the first.
Foden was seemingly made for Pep Guardiola, the English exemplar of the Catalan’s Tiki-taka movement. In this period of change, however, with Guardiola adapting to the Premier League’s paradigm shift to a more direct template, Foden has been swept into the margins by January signing Antoine Semenyo, the very embodiment of turbo power and thrust.
The idea of leaving to resurrect his career is anathema to a City lifer and Pep devotee like him, yet it is a discussion point in the City chat rooms as a contract extension beyond next year remains unsigned.
The idea of Foden’s absence from the World Cup, unthinkable at the height of the treble-winning season three summers ago, flows through the conversation like the Rubicon, a game-changing feature with irreversible consequences should he choose to cross it.
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