Reporter Han Bing reports that Foden, the third-youngest winner of the annual award in the history of the FWA (Football Journalists' Association), nicknamed "The Prince of Manchester City" by fans, carries the expectations of too many fans. As Manchester City's most successful youth elite in the Abu Dhabi era, the 23-year-old Foden was able to win the best of the year at such a fiercely competitive giant, which is the result of strength and luck, but also the simple love of football since childhood, and the result of his family's hard work.
His mother "tole" him to Manchester City
Born in 2000 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, Philip Foden grew up in a family of eight, the second of six siblings. Foden had the same name as his father, and his grandmother, Mary, used Ronnie as a nickname for little Foden because of his round head to avoid confusion with his father's namesake. Foden's family and childhood friends privately refer to him as Ronnie, and in 2019, Foden named his first child Ronnie.
Foden's father and brother are both Manchester United fans, but his mother, Claire, and other siblings are Manchester City fans. Under the influence of his mother, Foden also became a Manchester City fan. Foden was only a few months old when his parents tied the football to the stroller. Foden was just under two years old when he was able to dribble the ball next to his brother, and his mother, Claire, said Foden's childhood was "no games, no toys, just football". He spends all his free time practising his game, from the car park to the street to his room, and the head of the Manchester City Academy said: "Even if there are 1,000 kids playing on the pitch, you can find Foden at first sight because he works hard enough.
Foden was spotted at the age of four by Manchester City Academy director John Terry, who he attributed to chance: "I wasn't going to go to primary school that day, but the City Academy was training children under the age of six. Terry John asked his PE teacher if there were any other kids who could play, and he recommended me. The PE teacher had repeatedly advised his mother, Claire, to send a video of Foden playing to Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, but Foden's mother never did. She also turned down offers from Manchester United and Liverpool at the age of eight, eventually enrolling her son in Manchester City's Under-9 youth academy. For Foden's football career, his parents moved the family to the vicinity of St Beez's school, where he attended.
Manchester City's Academy has partnered with St. Beez's School, a prestigious private school, and any child trained full-time in Manchester City can attend this prestigious school with high tuition fees. The head of Manchester City's academy had made it clear that the competition for a place in the first team was fierce. Foden has been ready to give up his football dreams since the age of 12 and is one of the very few survivors to make it to City's first team. In addition, every week Foden and the rest of his classmates practiced boxing. In addition to exercising the core strength of the upper body, it is also exercising the ability to resist blows and willpower. It is the high quality of teaching and the strict discipline of Manchester City's Academy and St Beez's School that have made Foden what he is today.
Mark Allen, director of Manchester City's Academy Academy when Foden was growing up, confirmed that he was never an 'ugly duckling' and that he had always been a key target at Manchester City's Academy. Foden even hired Liverpool Harriers track and field team coach Clark for special training during the epidemic in order to improve the speed of starting. His running form, acceleration habits, stride length and cadence have all been professionally corrected. Foden's performance in the first five metres of the start sprint was noticeably improved, and at the Qatar 2022 World Cup he was England's third-fastest sprint behind Walker and Marcus Rashford. That's Foden's pure passion for football, and he'll do whatever it takes to make himself stronger.
Gua Shuai trained the "Prince of Manchester City"
Foden, who became famous as a teenager, is known as the "Prince of Manchester City", not only because of his status as a youth coach of the Blue Moon Army, but also because of the careful cultivation of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and other Manchester City senior players. After Phil Foden won the Under-17 World Cup with England Under-17s in 2017 and won the Ballon d'Or, Pep Guardiola has seen him as City's future. Foden's progress at Manchester City has also been gradual and down-to-earth. In 2018, Foden became the youngest winner of a Premier League winner's medal, in 2019 he became the youngest all-time Champions League goalscorer and the youngest English player to start and score in a Champions League knockout round.
Fresh from establishing himself in City's first team, Pep Guardiola gave the newcomer a crucial definition: "He's one of the most talented players I've ever seen, both as a player and as a coach. This evaluation was given to Messi by Guardiola when he was in charge of Barcelona before, and it is also a testimony to Messi's becoming an epoch-making superstar after that. Pep Guardiola's emphasis on Foden is evident in this, and he discovered that Foden was born out of surprise when he watched the youth team play shortly after taking charge of Manchester City. At that time, Guardiola jumped directly out of the chair in the stands, pointed at Foden and shouted: "Who is that number 10?"
Of course, Foden's journey to growth has not been easy. In September 2020, when England played a World Cup qualifier in Iceland, Greenwood and Foden violated epidemic prevention rules by taking two young women to spend the night in the team's hotel. The two girls are 20-year-old Miss Universe Iceland Nadia Gunnasdottir and her 19-year-old cousin Laura Clausen, and Greenwood reached out to the former to book two rooms in the hotel for them, but not on the same floor as the England team. Foden and Greenwood each spent a few hours in their rooms with the girls, and the girls left the hotel before breakfast the next day. The pair were expelled from the squad by Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate and fined £1,500 by the Icelandic police. Afterwards, Foden issued a public apology, voluntarily admitting his mistake and saying that he would learn a lesson. So far, at least, he has not had any infractions within the team.
Foden has been in great form this season and he has also changed his goal celebrations. Kneeling on one knee and aiming with both hands is a reference to the nickname "The Sniper" given to him by his Manchester City team-mates during a five-a-side mini-training match. Team-mate Walker said the origin of the nickname was straightforward, as Foden has preferred to shoot more than he had done this season. In addition to Pep Guardiola, Foden's idol David Silva, as well as other Manchester City seniors such as Raheem Sterling and Kompany, have coached Foden to improve and mature his technical and tactical thinking. To some extent, Foden is indeed the "prince" that Manchester City has cultivated from top to bottom.