How does anyone lay claim to succeeding a man they call Merlin? Phil Foden had the answer on Sunday. By sprinkling his magic across Wembley to inspire Manchester City to victory in the Carabao Cup final against Aston Villa.
The 19-year-old has long been considered as the heir apparent to David Silva, who will depart City in the summer after 10 years of casting his spells from midfield, but the Foden accession is no fancy of supporters desperate to see one of their own take centre stage. It is Pep Guardiola who has anointed him. “David is going to leave this season and we are not going to buy any player in his position because we have Phil,” Guardiola said in January. “If we didn’t believe in him we might go to the market to replace David, but we have Phil.”
The vagaries of the transfer window are such that Guardiola cannot categorically close the door on adding creative talent; in other words, situations can change. But his encouragement for Foden has provided motivation and inspiration.
“If the manager says something like that, it gives you a lot of belief and courage to keep playing and doing well,” he says. “With the manager behind you, it can only help you and make you better. He is always trying to help me each day and it’s just a pleasure for me to be a part of it.”
Sometimes the yearning for the local boy to make good can blind fans to harsh realities but the question for Foden, particularly after Sunday, is not whether he will make it but how quickly and where.
Nominally a No 10, there was an element of surprise when Guardiola lined him up on the right of his front three. In one of the biggest games of his short career, Foden was out of position. The challenge was immense and, possibly because of his burgeoning status, it was no exaggeration to say that all eyes were on him. The noise around Foden has been a constant since he starred for England’s under-17s in the World Cup triumph of 2017. He was named player of the tournament.
The way Foden seized his opportunity was breathtaking; one of those coming-of-age stories so beloved of top-level sport. There was a stillness around him when he did his work, the sense that the ball was his best friend, almost an extension of his body. Witness when he was buffeted early on by a Villa challenger only to retain his balance and accelerate away. Most players would have gone down. Or when he took the most casually perfect touch to kill a high pass, jink inside and shoot just wide.
There was a moment in the second half when he took another crossfield ball and, without letting it touch the ground, juggled forward with it. A bit of showboating? No. The over-riding impression was of a young player enjoying himself, eager to show everyone what he could do. It is the purity of the first touch that sets apart the very best; Foden’s is a thing of beauty. And, remember, he influenced this final from an unfamiliar position. Guardiola, who prizes tactical flexibility, would have loved that.
Kevin De Bruyne said last week that sometimes City’s players “don’t really know until the game starts what we need to do”. Guardiola wants them to interpret their roles, to respond to the ebb and flow. Foden, who set up the first goal of City’s 2-1 win for Sergio Agüero, did just that.
“It’s a new position for me playing out there [on the right] but I enjoyed it because I got a lot of time on the ball and a lot of room to do things,” Foden said. “It always helps if you can play in many positions and I thought I did OK in that position.”
It is the curse of a journalist to talk up young players but, at times like these, it feels unavoidable and with Euro 2020 looming it is surely inevitable that there will be a clamour for Gareth Southgate to call up Foden to the senior England squad.
The problem for Southgate goes beyond the embarrassment of riches he has in terms of young attacking midfield talent (Mason Mount, James Maddison, Dele Alli, Jack Grealish, Ruben Loftus‑Cheek). It also concerns whether he can select a player who has yet to complete 90 minutes in the Premier League this season and has done so once in his career.
“I want to be there, but it’s very difficult with the players that we have,” Foden says. “Hopefully Gareth was watching [against Villa] and hopefully he saw things that he liked. All I can do is show what I can do every time I play and see where it takes me. We haven’t spoken much but he has said in a few places that he is keeping a close eye on me.”
Foden knows how to make people feel old. His earliest Wembley memory? “I remember the bad one against Wigan when we got beat 1-0 in the FA Cup final late on [in 2013],” he says. He also tweeted a picture on Sunday night of him celebrating the opening goal with Agüero and a caption that said he had been 11 years old when the striker helped City to their first Premier League title in 2012.
2012: I was an 11yr old city fan watching Aguero win us our first Prem title
— Phil Foden (@PhilFoden) March 1, 2020
2020: pic.twitter.com/Loir9DLP61
Foden talks these days of a sense of belonging. “When I first went [with the City first-team squad] I found it quite difficult to keep up with the speed and the physicality and I was getting quite frustrated at times,” he says. “But as a few months went on and I started getting the hang of it, that’s when I felt comfortable.”
For now, Foden can enjoy a man‑of-the-match performance for his club in a Wembley showpiece but the treadmill does not stop and next up is the FA Cup fifth-round tie at Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday. The excitement around Foden is palpable. He is ready to step up.
