‘Special’ Phil Foden is making the sublime seem easy
Phil Foden celebrates scoring against Man City
What is already abundantly clear is that football’s hyperbolic signifiers of potential- wonderkid, golden boy etc. – are already outdated. Foden is, on current form, an almost undroppable component in one of Europe’s best sides, keeping the likes of Raheem Sterling and Ferran Torres on the bench. In terms of technical ability, he is within touching distance of any current England international, even at this early stage of his career, and should be a certainty for Gareth Southgate’s squad at Euro 2020.
And yet, all glowing compliments aside, it can be hard to refine Foden’s strengths down to any one specific attribute. Joel Latibeaudiere, the captain of England’s U17 World Cup-winning side, once spoke about what made certain players in the squad so prodigious. “Phil is just Phil,” he said after arriving at Foden. “He’s just special.”
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Those were the exact same words used by Pep Guardiola after giving Foden his first appearance in pre-season in the summer of 2017. “I would like to have the right words to describe what I saw,” he said almost giddily. “He’s a gift for us. He’s special.”
It has, of course, not always been a smooth passage to this point. Like in any burgeoning career, there have been frustrations at a lack of game time, rare moments of indiscipline, and a process of adjustment to Guardiola’s exhaustive ideals.
There has always been a clarity, though, too. An assurance that, with Guardiola’s coaching, Foden can be moulded into one of the world’s best midfielders, pushed and punished to harness every facet of the game to an exceptional degree. He is Guardiola’s perfect project, with an affinity and willingness to learn. If it can’t be said quite how good Foden can yet be, then perhaps it serves best to look at how far he has already come in such a short space of time.
“He deserves to play. His standards are higher,” Guardiola said on Wednesday. “He is 20 years old; just look at the stats. The amount of games, the goals and the assists since he joined us compared to the bigger stars in English football at his age.”
Foden’s finish against Brighton was just another example of that rapid improvement, a perfect shot hit like little more than a pass. The sublime made to look like extraordinarily easy.
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