EXCLUSIVEPHIL FODEN: Newly-栄冠を与えるd FWA Footballer of the Year on the secrets of wearing No 47, what makes Jude Bellingham so special... and what he really thinks of Jurgen Klopp

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Some footballers like to turn their 長，率いるs away from history, the challenges it 現在のs and the 圧力 it brings. Phil Foden doesn’t think that way. He wants to walk に向かって it.

For Foden and Manchester City, a 発射 at a 支持する／優勝者s League defence and a 連続する treble have gone, ground into the dirt by Real Madrid’s 拒絶 to buckle during an epic E tihad night.

But at City when one door の近くにs, there is always another one to walk through. And for Foden and his team-mates a 思い出の品 of what remains possible over the next five weeks is 令状 large on the 塀で囲む every time they lace up their boots.

‘We understand it here,’ Foden, who was?投票（する）d the Football Writers' 協会's Footballer of the Year, says.

‘We know if we 勝利，勝つ the 首相 League this time we will have done something new. It’s something we have our 注目する，もくろむs on.

Phil Foden is 目的（とする）ing to build on Manchester City's miraculous Treble last year with a whole new challenge in the 首相 League

The 学院 卒業生（する） was first interviewed by Mail Sport five years ago - and his meteoric rise since is （疑いを）晴らす to see?

The defending 支持する／優勝者s were knocked out of the 支持する／優勝者s League by Real Madrid, but 焦点（を合わせる） now switches closer to home

‘Every time we put our boots on at the training ground that 説 is there on the 塀で囲む.

‘It says: “Nobody has won four 首相 Leagues in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動…yet”.

‘We want to put ourselves in history.

‘Every day I sit and look at that スローガン and I think: “Why not?”.’

The last time Foden sat 負かす／撃墜する with Mail Sport was almost five years ago. Foden was 18 and the football world was talking about why City 経営者／支配人 Pep Guardiola didn’t play him more or at least send him out on 貸付金. Foden himself, just eighteen months after his first team debut, was いっそう少なく preoccupied with all that. Beset by ペテン師 syndrome ? a former City ball boy in a changing room 十分な of world 星／主役にするs ? he told me he had to stop himself asking Kevin De Bruyne for autographs every time he turned up for work.

Foden was a kid 支援する then. Probably the most talented kid in England but a kid just the same. That day he agreed to jump into a ball 炭坑，オーケストラ席 for our photographer. This week he laughed at that memory. It seems faintly ridiculous now and that’s because it is. Because now Foden, a father of two, is arguably the most important player in Guardiola’s team, the scorer of big goals and the owner of important moments. Manchester 部隊d. Real at the Bernabeu. It doesn’t 事柄 who the 対立 is.

Boyhood Manchester City fan Foden now plays と一緒に club icons such as Kevin De Bruyne

The player, who has had arguably his best season of his career, was recently Player of the Match at the Bernabeu

Foden gets nervous before some big games. ‘バタフライs in my stomach when I get to the stadium and I know it’s on,’ he says. But they disappear once the game starts. ‘That first touch of the ball and I know I am in my home,’ he nods.

Foden is still a young man. He is not 24 until the end of this month. But as a sportsman he is all grown up. He could 勝利，勝つ another Player of the Year honour and Gareth Southgate will rely on him when England get to Germany for the European 選手権. Foden, Bellingham, Saka, Kane. No wonder the 残り／休憩（する） of Europe is nervous.

So we see him 異なって now. The questions have been answered. They are 存在 answered. Guardiola w as 権利 all along. Who would have thought it?

‘It’s been hard いつかs, you know, 存在 the City fan who was a ball boy and then making it through the levels to the first team,’ Foden explains.

‘I don’t think it will ever really change you know? A little bit of that feeling is always gonna be there. But I have balance now. Maybe it’s finally gone this year, I don’t know.

At 23, Foden is a family man with two young children (pictured after winning last season's 首相 League トロフィー)

Foden has 認める that he still gets nervous before the biggest matches - which might come as a surprise

After the season ends, the 的 will be European glory with England, と一緒に a cast of young talents 含むing Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham

‘The challenge for me was always a mountain to climb to even reach the first team. In my 長，率いる I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to make one 外見 for this club and be able to say that I had done it.

‘But once I did that I thought: “No I can 現実に play here. I can 扱う the 基準”.

‘Now I am at that 行う／開催する／段階 where I feel like I am a 重要な player in the tea m. I feel very comfortable with that.’

The house where Foden grew up stands on a street corner a beefy 解放する／自由な-kick away from Stockport 郡’s home at Edgeley Park.

It is to this house that Foden returned 持つ／拘留するing a 商売／仕事 card at the age of just six. It had been given to him at his school by a football scout called Terry John who had visited looking for talent. He had watched Foden dribble a ball 一連の会議、交渉／完成する some 反対／詐欺s and reckoned the kid had something.

As we talk and then do some filming for Mail Sport’s social マスコミ channels at City’s training ground this week, John stands 静かに in the corner. He is Foden’s 商売／仕事 経営者／支配人 now. Foden has always kept his circle tight and says he always will.

‘I have known Terry all my life,’ Foden says.

‘It’s important to keep people there who have been on your 旅行. Luckily he （機の）カム in that day to school. Had he not, I don’t know where I would be 権利 now.

‘It’s hard, you know. There are a lot of people who suddenly want to be part of your life who didn’t know you before you become famous.

Foden has worked hard to keep his inner circle の近くに as he navigates the choppy waters of footballing stardom

The Treble-勝利者 was born into his support of his 現在の club, before joining their 学院

As a child, Foden always 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have a ball at his feet - only then would he 'be happy'

‘I have always tried to keep 負かす／撃墜する to earth and the people I have around me 港／避難所’t changed. I have a small group and that’s the way I like it.’

Foden’s 旅行 through the City age groups was 早い. It began seven miles from home at the club’s old Platt 小道／航路 施設, の近くに to Manchester’s famous curry mile in Rusholme. It’s owned by the university now.

‘It was an education,’ smiles Foden.

‘We had to wait for community groups to finish on the pitches before we could even get on.

‘But I wouldn’t change it. It was where I learned my （手先の）技術.

‘I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have a ball at my feet. Then I was happy. Playing with older boys helped me 扱う the ball in tight areas and use my physicality.

‘When I 結局 reached the first team, it was like 存在 a kid again. You know, I was 支援する to 存在 the smallest. I remembered everything I had been taught as a kid and 簡単に transferred it in to the first team. It felt just the same.’

Once the talent was 設立するd and the road to prominence mapped out, it was on to his club’s modern City Football 学院, the sprawling 16-pitch 施設 across the 二重の carriageway from the Etihad Stadium.

On his Instagram account, there is a wonderful photograph of Foden training with the City first team for the first time in 2016. He has the ball ? of course he has ? while Sergio Aguero and Yaya 小旅行する lurk nearby. At 16-years-old, he is a boy to their man in every 考えられる way.

‘That photo makes me very proud,’ Foden says.

‘株ing that changing room was a real big moment.

During his interview with Ian Ladyman, Foden debunked a 重要な Man City myth about himself

This season, the prodigious talent has 得点する／非難する／２０d 22 goals and been an 無敵の 影響（力）

‘I remember going into the Rondo [where a player in the middle of a circle tries to 迎撃する passes made from one 味方する to the other] for the first time and just thinking: “Oh wow. How am I gonna reach that level?”

‘That Rondo… you just weren’t getting the ball. You were stuck in there in the middle for about ten minutes. But then, as time wore on, you learn to move the ball a bit quicker, just like they do.’

There is a myth in the blue half of Manchester about Foden and his 簡潔な／要約する （一定の）期間 as a City ball boy. It says that he was the one who threw the ball 支援する for the corner that led to Edin Dzeko’s equaliser against QPR as City 救助（する）d a lost 原因（となる） to 勝利，勝つ the 2012 首相 League.

‘No, it’s not true,’ laughs Foden.

‘I was 現実に behind that goal in the （人が）群がる with my mum. At the end we were on the pitch with everybody else.

‘It was the biggest thing to happen in the club’s history. Without that Aguero goal we don’t go on and 達成する what we have 達成するd today.

‘So many thanks to Sergio Aguero for that…’

City have won six more 首相 League 肩書を与えるs since that day and Foden has been 伴う／関わるd in five of them. This season has perhaps been his best, one that has seen him take steps 今後s ーに関して／ーの点でs of his 影響（力）. He has 得点する／非難する／２０d 22 goals.

More 広範囲にわたって, Foden understands and embraces what he stands for. The City Football Group 構成するs thirteen clubs across the globe. Foden, though, is one of their own, as they say, and others have followed closely behind.

Foden's rise from the 学院 階級s is an inspiration to others に引き続いて in his footsteps

David Silva (left) has been 述べるd as an important 影響（力） and 役割 model on young Foden

Rico 吊りくさび, a 19-year-old defender, was born in Bury and has an England cap. The midfielder Cole Palmer was born in Wythenshawe and also plays for England.

‘I know how important it is,’ nods Foden.

‘My story is nice isn’t it? Every age group.

‘I am so happy for myself, the club and the younger players in the 学院.

‘It probably does all mean a little bit more to me and yeah there has been 圧力.

‘I had to become an adult at a very young age. I had to listen to a lot of people 説 a lot of different things. He’s not playing enough. He should go on 貸付金.

‘I mean I had Kevin and David [Silva] in 前線 of me 支援する then. I knew I didn’t deserve to play.

‘But now I want to be a 役割 model for this 学院 and younger kids in my area. I tell them to never stop loving football. Because if you love it you will never be afraid of the hard work.

‘Hopefully young players look at me and think: “If Phil did it then why can’t I do it?”’

For Foden, Silva was the one on the pedestal. ‘I just loved him,’ he says. ‘What a player.’

ーに関して／ーの点でs of the guiding 影響（力）, that （機の）カム from the captain. ‘It was scary 存在 moved to the first team dressing room but Vinny [Kompany] put his arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する me. I was shy but he made it 平易な.’

Foden （機の）カム of age under the tutelage of then-Man City captain Vincent Kompany (pictured in 2019)

Although not 責任がある his 首相 League-winning goal, Foden also learned a lot from Sergio Aguero

But Foden 選ぶd not to take the Argentine's shirt, 予定 to his 忠義 to his number 47 jersey

And then there was Aguero, the hero of 2012. When he left in 2021, Foden was 申し込む／申し出d his number ten shirt but turned it 負かす／撃墜する. He already had one he liked.

‘存在 a young player you don’t have many 選択s when it comes to what you can have on your shirt,‘ explains Foden.

‘I had a few numbers sent to me and 非，不，無 of them really meant anything to me apart from that one, the 47.

‘That was the age my grandad was when he died. I was young when we lost him. I remember going to むちの跡s with him and on a few other trips. My dad says he loved playing football with me.

‘I asked my dad if he would be happy if I wore that number. He said it would be amazing so I took the shirt number and I have loved it ever since.

‘I have it tattooed on me now and it’s a shirt I don’t ever see changing. It’s nice to make your own 遺産／遺物. It’s a strange number nobody else will go for so hopefully in years to come when I have finished, 47 at City will be remembered for Phil Foden.’

Foden was on the sofa at home watching 肩書を与える 競争相手s Liverpool and 兵器庫 滞る last month. A day earlier, City had beaten Luton 5-1 at home. The Gunners have 回復するd to sit 最高の，を越す of the 首相 League again, but City are one point behind with a game in 手渡す.

‘I was celebrating a little bit,’ he smiles a little bashfully.

‘But nothing over the 最高の，を越す. Nothing changes. We just need to 勝利，勝つ every game.’

Foden's 経営者／支配人 Pep Guardiola has fostered an all-征服する／打ち勝つing 態度 の中で his players

Man City may be out of the 支持する／優勝者s League, but that will only serve to terrify their 首相 League 競争相手s

Guardiola’s City have 始める，決める new 基準s in English football. Foden and his team-mates have made the 異常な normal. Teams didn’t always have to be almost perfect to 勝利，勝つ the 肩書を与える but they do now.

‘Somehow we just click in to this gear at this time of year,’ Foden says.

‘Hopefully we can show our best now as the next three games are cup 決勝戦. I think they will decide the season.’

Foden was speaking 事前の to City's 支持する／優勝者s League second 脚 against Real. City should have won but didn’t. It happens in football. Foden’s 刑罰，罰則 in the shoot-out struck the 支援する of the 逮捕する like a ミサイル. A week earlier, he had done likewise from open play in Spain. Big 衝撃s.

His goal in the Bernabeu already has a place in his mind as one of his career best while City 直面する a repeat of last season's FA Cup final later this month.

‘The FA Cup is really special to me,’ he nods.

‘When I was a kid I loved it. It’s one that I always want to 勝利，勝つ a lot, 現実に. The final against Man 部隊d last season was amazing.’

地元の Manchester 競争 has been 攻撃するd ひどく one way for all of Foden’s time in the City team. Liverpool have been the 正規の／正選手 挑戦者.

‘It’s a shame that Jurgen Klopp is leaving,’ is Foden’s surprising take on that.

にもかかわらず going toe-to-toe with Liverpool as 広大な／多数の／重要な adversaries, Foden is 始める，決める to 行方不明になる their 影響力のある 経営者／支配人 Jurgen Klopp

‘He’s been brilliant. To 直面する his team isn’t nice but I think he is good for the game. He has changed Liverpool and it will be sad to see him go.

‘I always want to play against the best.’

Foden should get that chance this summer with England in Germany. He was part of the squad that （機の）カム の近くに to winning the 2020 見解／翻訳／版 of the Euros even though a freak 傷害 支配するd him out of the final against Italy at Wembley.

‘That was just crazy,’ he says, shaking his 長，率いる.

‘I was walking in after training the day before the final. Someone just passed me the ball. I tried to 支配（する）／統制する it by putting one 脚 behind the other like this, just a trick, and my standing 脚 just, 井戸／弁護士席 I heard a 割れ目 and I knew straight away.

‘I couldn’t walk. It was 破滅的な. I remember Gareth speaking to me and I just couldn’t help crying.

‘I couldn’t even get any words out. I was so upset.

‘I have learned a lesson from that, you know. I try and not do so much after training now. The coaches will probably tell you I am lying. But that really woke me up.’

Foden won’t be the only young 星／主役にする in Southgate’s squad. Another one stands out now. Jude Bellingham, the 20-year-old darling of Real.

‘I have never seen anyone so 円熟した for his age,’ says Foden.

‘I feel he’s got a gift from God with his physique. We really need him at his best.’

Foden is still haunted by pangs of upset に引き続いて England's final 敗北・負かす to Italy three years ago

と一緒に Bellingham, the player 代表するs an excellent chance for England in Germany

Before all that there is much to 達成する. No treble but maybe a league and cup 二塁打. Foden looks 支援する on last year’s 祝賀s as one of the best days of his life.

‘In a way it was perfect it rained,’ he laughs.

‘Manchester rain.’

Driven on by a 経営者／支配人 who believes in him. Foden will be 前線 and central between now and the season’s end. I put it to him that Guardiola must be exhausting to play for.

‘No it’s the total opposite,’ Foden explains.

‘It’s so enjoyable. You look at what he’s won and you would think he may be tired by now but every season he is the same. You can’t help but rise to it.’

So on he will go. Five weeks to go. So much to play for. And what about the individual stuff? One 負かす／撃墜する and another Player of the Year award to go. Do they 事柄?

‘I hope I am up there in the conversation,’ he says.

‘I am not gonna 嘘（をつく）. I want to be one of the best 首相 League players this season. I think I have the ability’.

Foden’s is coy about where his own PFA 投票（する） has gone but says his team-mate Rodri should also be a 競争相手.

‘He has no 証拠不十分s,’ he says.

If that’s not a very glamorous call then maybe it’s appropriate. It’s not a world Foden really wants to live in.

Asked who the most famous person he has met is, he can’t really remember.

It was fitting that the 勝利を得た Man City heroes were にわか雨d by a customary 暴風雨 upon their return

Foden may not be starstruck by other players too often, but he doesn't take for 認めるd how much his life has changed

How about the one moment he realised that the kid who grew up playing football on a car park opposite a betting shop in Stockport had finally made it?

‘I would go 支援する there, to home, and I would be walking on the streets and people would come up asking for photos,’ says Foden slowly.

‘I would think it was strange because some of the people that were coming over, 井戸／弁護士席, I already knew them from 支援する when I was young.

‘So for that to be happening made me realise things had changed. Things were gonna be different from then on…’