England Under-20s boss Ian Foster has worked with the brightest homegrown players in the game.
From £115million Jude Bellingham to Champions League-winning Phil Foden and Three Lions hat-trick hero Bukayo Saka, Foster has had a helping hand in shaping all of their careers. Personalities differ, of course, but the 46-year-old reckons there’s one shared characteristic that has helped them all achieve great success so early.
And he also believes that, contrary to popular opinion, the mouthwatering sums youngsters can earn actually helps rather than hinders their ascent. Foster said: “The biggest thing you notice is the hunger and desire, and what the money has done is give them one focus.
“It takes away all the stresses so they don’t have to worry about car payments and rental payments. Their biggest concern is winning games of football, cap accumulation and winning trophies.
“I do get the negativity around the kind of money the lads pick up but people need to perhaps look at where they have come from and, ultimately, that’s the industry they are in.
“They are getting paid what they deserve because that’s where it is at, but their attitude, application, desire and hunger, it’s all there.”
Foster is delighted for Bellingham following his move to Real Madrid. And with tongue in cheek, he added: “My biggest thing with Jude is my disappointment in him.
“We met in January or February in a hotel in Marbella, I was doing a site visit for our March international camp and Borussia Dortmund were doing some winter training.
“He promised me he’d come and be part of the Under-20s World Cup but, I don’t know, he mustn’t have seen my messages when call-ups were due, he must have turned his phone off.”
He went on: “But one thing Jude has done for the age group I’ve just worked with, which is his age group, is when we got to the final of the Euros, he — along with some other senior players and staff — sent some really nice messages to the group that we played for them on the eve of the final.
“So he has always stayed true to the group and he’s a really humble guy.”
Former Liverpool youth team striker Foster, who played for Hereford, Barrow, Kidderminster and Chester, is in a select group of young managers on the Premier League Next programme, which has earmarked bosses destined for the top.
He was part of Steve Cooper’s staff when England won the Under-17s World Cup in 2017 and he led England to glory as head coach at the Under-19 Euros in 2020.
There were big hopes for his Under-20s at the World Cup but with some missing players and bad fortune they lost to Italy in the round of 16 having topped their group.
Foster added: “It’s a mixed bag of emotions. The main one is that I’m really proud of the players and really proud of the staff group. We’ve had 26 games together over the last couple of seasons and the players went 20 games unbeaten.
“Unfortunately, in the 21st we lose late on and that’s the disappointment of knockout football. But they have put themselves in a really good place for the 21s and hopefully senior selection down the line.”
Foster, who managed League of Ireland clubs Galway and Dundalk before working as first team coach at Coventry and Portsmouth, was part of Gareth Southgate’s management team in Qatar.
And while he is happy at the FA, he has ambitions to manage at the top. He said: “When you speak to people in clubs, there’s always the perception that you’re working with under-age players, but actually they are only under age in our system, they’re playing first-team football everywhere else.
“And before I arrived at the FA I’d only ever worked in senior football. I always think your reputation in the game and the work you are doing will take you where you need to go, and that’s what I hope.”
