Words Chris Flanagan
“PHIL WAS A LEADER
WITH HIS ABILITY –
HE WASn’T LOUD. HE’D
DO IT ALL On HIS OWn”
42 December 2021 FourFourTwo08
PHIL FODEn
Age 21 Club Manchester City
Nationality English
Position Attacking midfielderEngland had just taken a 3-2 lead in front
of 66,684 in Kolkata, when their newest
star turned his back to the crowd and
pointed to the name on his jersey. The
message was clear from Phil Foden:
remember this name – you’re going to
be seeing it pretty often from now on.
Foden had dragged the Three Lions back
from 2-0 down against Spain in the final of
the 2017 Under-17 World Cup in India. He
would score again before full-time to round
off an emphatic 5-2 triumph, securing both
the man of the match and the player of the
tournament awards. Striker Rhian Brewster
had bagged eight goals in six matches,
including hat-tricks in both the quarter-final
and semi-final, but even that wasn’t enough
to supersede Foden as the undoubted star
of England’s all-conquering line-up.
“In the second half of that final, he decided
he was going to win us the game and he just
turned it on,” recalls Curtis Anderson, the
Three Lions’ goalkeeper in that tournament.
“When you have someone as good as him,
and he decides that he wants to win you the
game, you’re probably going to win.”
Next winter in Qatar, it will be five years
since Foden spearheaded England’s surge to
the World Cup. Back in Asia once more – this
time at senior level, on the grandest stage of
all – he’ll be bidding to do it again.
Foden’s displays in India didn’t exactly
come out of nowhere. They’d been building
for some time, both for club and country.PHIL YOUR
BOOTS, SOn
Manchester City’s rising star
has come a long way since
he helped England to win
the Under-17 World Cup four
years ago. In 2022, he could
be set for more global glory“He was about 11 when I first met him at
Platt Lane,” says Anderson, who also came
through Manchester City’s academy. “He
was really small, but he was ridiculously
good with the ball and that’s never changed.
It was glued to his foot. I remember thinking
‘How is he so good?’ We’d go to tournaments
abroad two or three times a year, and it was
Groundhog Day – he’d get the player of the
tournament award every single time.”
By 2016, the pair had progressed together
into a highly talented England U17s squad
which also included Jadon Sancho and
Callum Hudson-Odoi. In the space of two
months, Foden played a starring role as
Steve Cooper’s side thrashed Belgium 6-0,
Croatia 5-0 and Germany 8-1 – scorelines
that were even more impressive when you
consider matches only lasted 80 minutes.
In the summer of 2017, Foden scored
against Spain in the final of the U17s Euros,
only for the Young Lions to eventually lose22 FOR
2022