Staying power
Since breaking onto the scene as a teenage prodigy, Phil Foden has lived in the spotlight. It hasn’t been easy, but with patience, maturity and a little bit of fishing, he explains how he has always found his way
WORDS Chris Burke | PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Regan
Cover Stories
You’re only as good as your last match. Reputation counts for nothing if you can’t live up to the hype. Every play is dissected and every moment amplified. There is no final whistle, as seasons stretch from one into the next. Players discuss the physical toll on their bodies, but mentally too there is no time to rest. Success can come down to who copes best with that pressure, who doesn’t let it affect their game. For Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden, blocking out the noise comes down to a single thought as he steps out onto the pitch. “I’m going to make something happen here.”
Foden has been doing just that for the best part of a decade already. Can he really be only 25? More than eight years and 350 games have come and gone since his senior City debut, and Foden has claimed a remarkable six Premier League titles and a Champions League crown in that time.
If that reads like a simple trajectory of success and progress, it’s been anything but. After a season to forget in 2024/25, the mission now is finding his way back to centre stage, both figuratively and literally as he grapples with a new remit on the pitch – taking over the creative reins in the middle. This season, with Kevin De Bruyne departed and Pep Guardiola rethinking his tactics, Foden has been recast in a deeper role with freedom to push forward. A goal spree at the end of last year showed the promise of that approach, including a first Champions League double against Dortmund.
“When you score, there’s just a feeling when you go onto the pitch – you feel like you’re going to score again,” he says. “For me, there’s no better confidence going into a game than when you scored in the previous game. I feel like you just go into the game thinking, ‘I can score again.’ When I’m scoring a lot of goals, I just feel like more goals are coming, which is a good feeling.”
Goals have been harder to come by in recent weeks, a combination of a drop in form and stiff competition for places. Nonetheless, Foden has undoubtedly experienced a boost in self-belief since last summer. Reluctant once again to leave the training pitch, Foden began this campaign by banishing the weariness of 2024/25, when he admitted to being weighed down by off-field issues – so much so that he asked to be excused England duty in May. “I feel you just have to be patient, just believe in yourself,” he adds, a message worth embracing more than ever as he strives to reassert himself in the closing months of the season, particularly with a World Cup on the horizon.
Patience is a theme Foden returns to like a mantra. It’s a trait that’s helped drive his progress as much as his slippery qualities in tight spaces and ability to play between the lines, the former academy prodigy having learned to bide his time. Foden first joined at a very young age and witnessed City’s dramatic transformation as he climbed the youth ranks, the club morphing from Premier League also-rans into a global powerhouse able to recruit ready-made superstars. As a boyhood fan from nearby Stockport, however, he never lost sight of his first-team goal.
City’s growing stature also generated a swirl of buzz around their most gifted youth prospects, especially the local talent. If Foden is ready now to shoulder added responsibility at the heart of the team – and continue serving as an emblem of Mancunian pride – it’s because he did not let the hype sway him off course as a teen phenomenon. The first player born in 2000 to start in the Champions League? Phil Foden. Voted best player at the 2017 U-17 World Cup? Also Foden. Crucially, however, he had the maturity to talk, listen – and wait.
“At the start of my career, it was difficult because I wanted to play more and I wasn’t getting a lot of game time and I had to remain patient. So, that frustration… You need to speak to someone and they can help you, and I have always had that support. The likes of Vinny [Vincent Kompany] – I could just go to him and say, ‘What do you think about this?’ I could go to my family, my mum and dad, speak to them and they’ve always given me great advice. You need a great family and people you can speak to if you want to be successful.”
As well as ex-club captain Kompany, Foden credits Guardiola’s sense of “timing” for his early development, while singling out midfield legends De Bruyne and David Silva as role models. Along with his willingness to communicate, Foden knew when to sit back and watch. “I’d just look at the other players when I was a young player, the leaders we have, and how they’re so professional every day. That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day.”
“That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day”
“It’s been massively important for me to have a great family behind me. without that, maybe I could have slipped into bad habits”
On top of the backing he has received from his parents, Foden has three children of his own with his long-time partner, having first become a father at 18 – an age when many young footballers risk falling prey to lifestyle choices that can derail a career.
Memorably, the City ace paraded his son Ronnie on his shoulders after beating Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final, an image that hammered home his youthful maturity. “The day couldn’t have gone any better,” Foden recalls now of the 1-0 triumph in Istanbul. “Just to win the Champions League and obviously have those special moments with Ronnie as well. It’s just a day I always look back on. Most days, I just think about that day.”
He did not, however, shed a tear. “Some lads when we won the Champions League were obviously emotional, but I was just the total opposite; I was just so happy and buzzing,” he says, insisting that he rarely cries in general – not even when watching a tear-jerking Disney film with his kids. But don’t mistake that for a hard heart or lack of feeling. Ronnie, after all, is named after Foden’s late grandfather, whose life – cut short too young – the player has commemorated in a tattoo and the very shirt number he wears.
“When I first came into the first team, there weren’t a lot of numbers available. I was just looking at the ones available and not many stood out. Obviously, the No47 stood out because it was the age that my grandad passed away, so I thought, ‘I’m going to take that shirt for him and try to be successful in it.’ That’s my aim – to keep going now and try to do the best I can in it.”
He even turned down the No10 shirt when Sergio Agüero left City in 2021, eager to stay faithful to that family promise. And it’s with his family that he spends most of his free time, aside from the odd outing to indulge his other major passion: fishing. The bright lights and crowd roar of Champions League nights may have their adrenaline-pumping appeal, but Foden keeps himself sharp with an activity that could hardly be more of a contrast. Instead of incessant noise and the media glare, think silence, solitude and that recurring theme of his, patience.
“When we get the odd day off, I feel like it’s important just to switch off from football completely,” he says. “I feel like [fishing] is just completely different to football. I’ve obviously got a lot of fans shouting and, when you go fishing, it’s just the total opposite. It’s just peaceful, quiet and you can’t hear anyone. So, I feel like sometimes I just need to go fishing and just absolutely do nothing and relax. It’s important to have that switch.”
Especially now, as City enter the sharp end of the season. Guardiola’s side have experienced ebbs and flows this term, with an unbeaten end to 2025 followed by a stuttering start to 2026, but they are never to be underestimated and boast a habit of excelling in the latter months. Foden believes they are “blessed” by having that experience. “It does help when you’ve done it in the past and hopefully I can do it again,” he stresses, while pointing out various positives that suggest they are in a healthier place than this time last year.
“We just have more discussions as a team – how can we get back to the team we used to be. Everyone has been so determined, hungry to get back to that level. When things aren’t going well, if we lose a game, we have a team talk and try to make it right, so I feel like the mentality has improved a lot this year, and the determination and the hunger. I can see it in everyone’s eyes in training.” And if they need a spark? The man with No47 on his back is still itching to make it happen.
Foden has been doing just that for the best part of a decade already. Can he really be only 25? More than eight years and 350 games have come and gone since his senior City debut, and Foden has claimed a remarkable six Premier League titles and a Champions League crown in that time.
If that reads like a simple trajectory of success and progress, it’s been anything but. After a season to forget in 2024/25, the mission now is finding his way back to centre stage, both figuratively and literally as he grapples with a new remit on the pitch – taking over the creative reins in the middle. This season, with Kevin De Bruyne departed and Pep Guardiola rethinking his tactics, Foden has been recast in a deeper role with freedom to push forward. A goal spree at the end of last year showed the promise of that approach, including a first Champions League double against Dortmund.
“When you score, there’s just a feeling when you go onto the pitch – you feel like you’re going to score again,” he says. “For me, there’s no better confidence going into a game than when you scored in the previous game. I feel like you just go into the game thinking, ‘I can score again.’ When I’m scoring a lot of goals, I just feel like more goals are coming, which is a good feeling.”
Goals have been harder to come by in recent weeks, a combination of a drop in form and stiff competition for places. Nonetheless, Foden has undoubtedly experienced a boost in self-belief since last summer. Reluctant once again to leave the training pitch, Foden began this campaign by banishing the weariness of 2024/25, when he admitted to being weighed down by off-field issues – so much so that he asked to be excused England duty in May. “I feel you just have to be patient, just believe in yourself,” he adds, a message worth embracing more than ever as he strives to reassert himself in the closing months of the season, particularly with a World Cup on the horizon.
Patience is a theme Foden returns to like a mantra. It’s a trait that’s helped drive his progress as much as his slippery qualities in tight spaces and ability to play between the lines, the former academy prodigy having learned to bide his time. Foden first joined at a very young age and witnessed City’s dramatic transformation as he climbed the youth ranks, the club morphing from Premier League also-rans into a global powerhouse able to recruit ready-made superstars. As a boyhood fan from nearby Stockport, however, he never lost sight of his first-team goal.
City’s growing stature also generated a swirl of buzz around their most gifted youth prospects, especially the local talent. If Foden is ready now to shoulder added responsibility at the heart of the team – and continue serving as an emblem of Mancunian pride – it’s because he did not let the hype sway him off course as a teen phenomenon. The first player born in 2000 to start in the Champions League? Phil Foden. Voted best player at the 2017 U-17 World Cup? Also Foden. Crucially, however, he had the maturity to talk, listen – and wait.
“At the start of my career, it was difficult because I wanted to play more and I wasn’t getting a lot of game time and I had to remain patient. So, that frustration… You need to speak to someone and they can help you, and I have always had that support. The likes of Vinny [Vincent Kompany] – I could just go to him and say, ‘What do you think about this?’ I could go to my family, my mum and dad, speak to them and they’ve always given me great advice. You need a great family and people you can speak to if you want to be successful.”
As well as ex-club captain Kompany, Foden credits Guardiola’s sense of “timing” for his early development, while singling out midfield legends De Bruyne and David Silva as role models. Along with his willingness to communicate, Foden knew when to sit back and watch. “I’d just look at the other players when I was a young player, the leaders we have, and how they’re so professional every day. That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day.”
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“That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day”
“It’s been massively important for me to have a great family behind me. without that, maybe I could have slipped into bad habits”
On top of the backing he has received from his parents, Foden has three children of his own with his long-time partner, having first become a father at 18 – an age when many young footballers risk falling prey to lifestyle choices that can derail a career.
Memorably, the City ace paraded his son Ronnie on his shoulders after beating Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final, an image that hammered home his youthful maturity. “The day couldn’t have gone any better,” Foden recalls now of the 1-0 triumph in Istanbul. “Just to win the Champions League and obviously have those special moments with Ronnie as well. It’s just a day I always look back on. Most days, I just think about that day.”
He did not, however, shed a tear. “Some lads when we won the Champions League were obviously emotional, but I was just the total opposite; I was just so happy and buzzing,” he says, insisting that he rarely cries in general – not even when watching a tear-jerking Disney film with his kids. But don’t mistake that for a hard heart or lack of feeling. Ronnie, after all, is named after Foden’s late grandfather, whose life – cut short too young – the player has commemorated in a tattoo and the very shirt number he wears.
“When I first came into the first team, there weren’t a lot of numbers available. I was just looking at the ones available and not many stood out. Obviously, the No47 stood out because it was the age that my grandad passed away, so I thought, ‘I’m going to take that shirt for him and try to be successful in it.’ That’s my aim – to keep going now and try to do the best I can in it.”
He even turned down the No10 shirt when Sergio Agüero left City in 2021, eager to stay faithful to that family promise. And it’s with his family that he spends most of his free time, aside from the odd outing to indulge his other major passion: fishing. The bright lights and crowd roar of Champions League nights may have their adrenaline-pumping appeal, but Foden keeps himself sharp with an activity that could hardly be more of a contrast. Instead of incessant noise and the media glare, think silence, solitude and that recurring theme of his, patience.
“When we get the odd day off, I feel like it’s important just to switch off from football completely,” he says. “I feel like [fishing] is just completely different to football. I’ve obviously got a lot of fans shouting and, when you go fishing, it’s just the total opposite. It’s just peaceful, quiet and you can’t hear anyone. So, I feel like sometimes I just need to go fishing and just absolutely do nothing and relax. It’s important to have that switch.”
Especially now, as City enter the sharp end of the season. Guardiola’s side have experienced ebbs and flows this term, with an unbeaten end to 2025 followed by a stuttering start to 2026, but they are never to be underestimated and boast a habit of excelling in the latter months. Foden believes they are “blessed” by having that experience. “It does help when you’ve done it in the past and hopefully I can do it again,” he stresses, while pointing out various positives that suggest they are in a healthier place than this time last year.
“We just have more discussions as a team – how can we get back to the team we used to be. Everyone has been so determined, hungry to get back to that level. When things aren’t going well, if we lose a game, we have a team talk and try to make it right, so I feel like the mentality has improved a lot this year, and the determination and the hunger. I can see it in everyone’s eyes in training.” And if they need a spark? The man with No47 on his back is still itching to make it happen.
Foden has been doing just that for the best part of a decade already. Can he really be only 25? More than eight years and 350 games have come and gone since his senior City debut, and Foden has claimed a remarkable six Premier League titles and a Champions League crown in that time.
If that reads like a simple trajectory of success and progress, it’s been anything but. After a season to forget in 2024/25, the mission now is finding his way back to centre stage, both figuratively and literally as he grapples with a new remit on the pitch – taking over the creative reins in the middle. This season, with Kevin De Bruyne departed and Pep Guardiola rethinking his tactics, Foden has been recast in a deeper role with freedom to push forward. A goal spree at the end of last year showed the promise of that approach, including a first Champions League double against Dortmund.
“When you score, there’s just a feeling when you go onto the pitch – you feel like you’re going to score again,” he says. “For me, there’s no better confidence going into a game than when you scored in the previous game. I feel like you just go into the game thinking, ‘I can score again.’ When I’m scoring a lot of goals, I just feel like more goals are coming, which is a good feeling.”
Goals have been harder to come by in recent weeks, a combination of a drop in form and stiff competition for places. Nonetheless, Foden has undoubtedly experienced a boost in self-belief since last summer. Reluctant once again to leave the training pitch, Foden began this campaign by banishing the weariness of 2024/25, when he admitted to being weighed down by off-field issues – so much so that he asked to be excused England duty in May. “I feel you just have to be patient, just believe in yourself,” he adds, a message worth embracing more than ever as he strives to reassert himself in the closing months of the season, particularly with a World Cup on the horizon.
Patience is a theme Foden returns to like a mantra. It’s a trait that’s helped drive his progress as much as his slippery qualities in tight spaces and ability to play between the lines, the former academy prodigy having learned to bide his time. Foden first joined at a very young age and witnessed City’s dramatic transformation as he climbed the youth ranks, the club morphing from Premier League also-rans into a global powerhouse able to recruit ready-made superstars. As a boyhood fan from nearby Stockport, however, he never lost sight of his first-team goal.
City’s growing stature also generated a swirl of buzz around their most gifted youth prospects, especially the local talent. If Foden is ready now to shoulder added responsibility at the heart of the team – and continue serving as an emblem of Mancunian pride – it’s because he did not let the hype sway him off course as a teen phenomenon. The first player born in 2000 to start in the Champions League? Phil Foden. Voted best player at the 2017 U-17 World Cup? Also Foden. Crucially, however, he had the maturity to talk, listen – and wait.
“At the start of my career, it was difficult because I wanted to play more and I wasn’t getting a lot of game time and I had to remain patient. So, that frustration… You need to speak to someone and they can help you, and I have always had that support. The likes of Vinny [Vincent Kompany] – I could just go to him and say, ‘What do you think about this?’ I could go to my family, my mum and dad, speak to them and they’ve always given me great advice. You need a great family and people you can speak to if you want to be successful.”
As well as ex-club captain Kompany, Foden credits Guardiola’s sense of “timing” for his early development, while singling out midfield legends De Bruyne and David Silva as role models. Along with his willingness to communicate, Foden knew when to sit back and watch. “I’d just look at the other players when I was a young player, the leaders we have, and how they’re so professional every day. That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day.”
“That’s the type of player I want to be, just humble, and I always try to push for more and to be better every day”
“It’s been massively important for me to have a great family behind me. without that, maybe I could have slipped into bad habits”
On top of the backing he has received from his parents, Foden has three children of his own with his long-time partner, having first become a father at 18 – an age when many young footballers risk falling prey to lifestyle choices that can derail a career.
Memorably, the City ace paraded his son Ronnie on his shoulders after beating Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final, an image that hammered home his youthful maturity. “The day couldn’t have gone any better,” Foden recalls now of the 1-0 triumph in Istanbul. “Just to win the Champions League and obviously have those special moments with Ronnie as well. It’s just a day I always look back on. Most days, I just think about that day.”
He did not, however, shed a tear. “Some lads when we won the Champions League were obviously emotional, but I was just the total opposite; I was just so happy and buzzing,” he says, insisting that he rarely cries in general – not even when watching a tear-jerking Disney film with his kids. But don’t mistake that for a hard heart or lack of feeling. Ronnie, after all, is named after Foden’s late grandfather, whose life – cut short too young – the player has commemorated in a tattoo and the very shirt number he wears.
“When I first came into the first team, there weren’t a lot of numbers available. I was just looking at the ones available and not many stood out. Obviously, the No47 stood out because it was the age that my grandad passed away, so I thought, ‘I’m going to take that shirt for him and try to be successful in it.’ That’s my aim – to keep going now and try to do the best I can in it.”
He even turned down the No10 shirt when Sergio Agüero left City in 2021, eager to stay faithful to that family promise. And it’s with his family that he spends most of his free time, aside from the odd outing to indulge his other major passion: fishing. The bright lights and crowd roar of Champions League nights may have their adrenaline-pumping appeal, but Foden keeps himself sharp with an activity that could hardly be more of a contrast. Instead of incessant noise and the media glare, think silence, solitude and that recurring theme of his, patience.
“When we get the odd day off, I feel like it’s important just to switch off from football completely,” he says. “I feel like [fishing] is just completely different to football. I’ve obviously got a lot of fans shouting and, when you go fishing, it’s just the total opposite. It’s just peaceful, quiet and you can’t hear anyone. So, I feel like sometimes I just need to go fishing and just absolutely do nothing and relax. It’s important to have that switch.”
Especially now, as City enter the sharp end of the season. Guardiola’s side have experienced ebbs and flows this term, with an unbeaten end to 2025 followed by a stuttering start to 2026, but they are never to be underestimated and boast a habit of excelling in the latter months. Foden believes they are “blessed” by having that experience. “It does help when you’ve done it in the past and hopefully I can do it again,” he stresses, while pointing out various positives that suggest they are in a healthier place than this time last year.
“We just have more discussions as a team – how can we get back to the team we used to be. Everyone has been so determined, hungry to get back to that level. When things aren’t going well, if we lose a game, we have a team talk and try to make it right, so I feel like the mentality has improved a lot this year, and the determination and the hunger. I can see it in everyone’s eyes in training.” And if they need a spark? The man with No47 on his back is still itching to make it happen.
