YOU may remember that the original date for the 2020 Champions League final was May 30, two days after Manchester City tyro Phil Foden turned 20. Covid-19 has remoulded this year in myriad ways and among them is how Foden has the chance to influence the rescheduled competition in a big way.
Had this year been a normal one then Foden could have expected a continuation of his teenage role as an occasional sub, a youthful cherry placed triumphantly on top of a five-goal lead, but three months of turmoil on and Foden is a very different prospect. Five goals and an assist in nine league games during the restart are numbers that only Bruno Fernandes (6/4) and Kevin De Bruyne (5/4) could match from midfield and those players’ figures were helped by penalties and being the most impressive player in the league respectively.
Go back to the end of 2018-19 and Guardiola was praising Foden to the skies while at the same time not giving him many minutes on the pitch. "I have said many times in press conferences, but maybe not said it in front of him, Phil is the most, most, most talented player I have ever seen in my career as a manager,” he announced.
The best manager of the last 20 years saying this about an English prospect drove a lot people mad with excitement, so Foden’s slow, organic introduction to the City first XI was seen as an outrage. “If he’s that good, Pep, why’s he not in the team?? Did David Moyes hold back Wayne Rooney?” No, Rooney was not held back, in fact he had played approximately 100 hours more in the Premier League at Foden’s age. Did that help or hinder him though?
14 – In Phil Foden's 16 starts in all competitions for Manchester City in 2019-20 he has been directly involved in 14 goals (six goals & eight assists). Fruitful. #WATMCI pic.twitter.com/3qYOdIIaog
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 21, 2020
Even Foden’s former colleague Jadon Sancho has played roughly five times as much football, and Sancho’s valuation this summer reflects what he’s done with that time, but, having left City he is infinitely more likely to play for the red half of Manchester than the blue, even though he would slot perfectly into a side losing both David Silva and Leroy Sane.
Foden’s enduring patience, with not even a David Beckham-style second tier loan, is rare. Last September there were frenzied calls in the English media for Foden to “go and develop” elsewhere but why go and get your shins and magical feet raked and bruised in the Championship when you could stay and complete your education. Luke Skywalker stopped his training early (due to a family incident) and, let’s be honest, never quite reached his potential; Foden, thankfully, has not had to make that choice.
And anyway, the idea that he’s barely featured until now is overplayed, often for partisan reasons. Saturday’s game with Lyon will be Foden’s 75th for City and Guardiola and he has an almost astonishing win rate of 84%, better than any other player under the Spaniard, while he has played 27 Premier League games at the Etihad and won every single one of them, the best perfect home record in the competition’s history.
The idea that at 20, Foden is playing catch-up is ludicrous. When Manchester United played Inter in the 1998-99 Champions League, Beckham, shortly before his 24th birthday, was the youngest player in either starting XI. Patience can indeed be a virtue. 2020 has taught us that.
That’s why the addition of goals to Foden’s game this summer came at the perfect time for both him and Manchester City. He’s now strong enough to hold off opponents when he runs with the ball and an increasingly telepathic relationship with the deeper De Bruyne has seen Foden deployed all across the front three in recent weeks, including as a false nine that semi-baffled Real Madrid in the second leg of the Last 16 tie between the sides.
Long and rightly seen as a two footed playmaker, in the short term Foden is being used as a luxury finisher and his Premier League shot map below shows just how often he’s been found in the penalty area this season, or more accurately, since he turned 20 and football re-emerged from its slumber.
A bit from Guardiola’s eulogy to Foden in 2019 that is quoted less often is when he noted that "his [Foden] only problem is sometimes his manager doesn't put him in the starting XI. Hopefully in the future that can improve." Well that was then, this is very much now.
Foden has watched the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling flourish at City after featuring for other clubs, he’s seen Jadon Sancho supercharge his career in Germany and he’s seen Cristiano Ronaldo win titles in England, Spain and Italy. Very few players emerge at the top level and patiently build a legacy at a single club.
I can think of one, though, an Argentine at Barcelona. A player who was used in varying roles by Pep Guardiola in the early stages of his career, the most complete player of his and probably any other generation. Phil Foden’s patience? Probably worth it.
