Phil Foden admitted last month that he still gets nervous at Manchester City, bearing the standard for the thousands of boys who want to emulate his journey.
‘Butterflies in my stomach when I get to the stadium and I know it’s on. It’s been hard sometimes, you know, being the City fan who was a ball boy and then making it through the levels to the first team,’ he told Mail Sport.
‘I don’t think it will ever really change you know? A little bit of that feeling is always gonna be there,’ he admitted.
Whatever apprehensions or doubts he has, two things are cast iron certain: he has made it, and he is capitalising on his talent off the pitch as much as on it.
Foden’s rise was further cemented by being crowned men’s Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association for the first time, an honour steeped in the prestige of Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bobby Charlton. He received 42 per cent of the vote.
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Phil Foden grew up in a brick terraced house in Stockport, one of five children, football obsessed
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He has now been crowned Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association
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Foden’s young family are on a journey with him (his partner Rebecca Cooke is holding True, his daughter, while his son Ronnie holds the trophy)
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Foden and his girlfriend Rebecca Cooke recently announced they are expecting their third child together – pictured with son Ronnie, five, and daughter True, 12-months
Not that he needed the confirmation – he’s already a five-time Premier League winner and one-time European champion. But it is a waypoint on an ever-upward trajectory, a journey from a brick terraced house to a £3million mansion and global stardom.
His mum, Claire, has previously described her son as being the ‘cheapest kid ever’. She told The Daily Telegraph that his childhood was: ‘No games, no toys, nothing, just a football.’
That bond between boy and ball honed a special talent on the streets near Stockport County’s Edgeley Park ground, where he played with his older brother Callum.
The Man City star grew up in a modest end-terrace house with his parents Phil Snr and Claire, while he is one of their five children, with Kenzi, Lois, and Avayah his younger siblings.
Phil Snr, a Manchester United fan, manages his son’s career, while his mother, Claire has been credited with keeping his feet on the ground.
Foden was given the nickname ‘Ronnie’ by his paternal grandmother Mary, calling him ‘Ronnie Roundhead’ due to the shape of his head, with the name used to avoid confusion with his father.
He hasn’t lost sight of that upbringing. Foden still wears the number 47 in tribute to his grandfather who died at that age.
‘I was young when we lost him. I remember going to Wales with him and on a few other trips. My dad says he loved playing football with me,’ Foden told Mail Sport.
+11View galleryScouted by Man City as a youngster, Foden worked his way through their academy and made his debut in 2017, aged 17
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Man City and England star Foden opened up to Mail Sport in an exclusive interview last month
‘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 legacy. 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.’
Paying back to his family is significant to him.
The £200,000-a-week star, who has brand collaborations with Nike, Hugo Boss and jewellery brand Cernucci, has used his wealth to support his loved ones.
Foden previously bought his family a £3million, six-bed gated house in the picturesque Cheshire village of Prestbury, as well as buying his grandmother a £200,000 bay-fronted house just up the road from where he grew up.
The star also moved into a £2.85million mansion with his long-term partner Rebecca Cooke in 2022, along with his son Ronnie, five, and the couple’s three-year-old daughter.
Foden’s off-the-pitch earnings may soon match the talent on it, with his endorsements having reportedly soared to £1.4million, representing £117,000-a-month.
His rise from the Man City’s academy to the Football of the Year-elect has looked serene on the surface. Foden won the Golden Ball as England won the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, while he won two PFA Young Player of the Year awards.
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Foden – or ‘Ronnie’ as he is universally known to family and friends – lives in a £2.85million mansion with his partner Rebecca Cooke, along with his son and daughter
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His off-pitch earnings have reportedly soared to £1.4million – £117,000 a month
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Yet, Foden was forced to bide his time at club level despite the initial clamour for Guardiola to make him a fixture of the team.
We’ve seen another youngster in Cole Palmer move on in those circumstances, unwilling to sit on the bench when he feels he can make an immediate impact, and he has proven any doubters wrong at Chelsea.
But Foden’s trajectory with his beloved club is one that has felt destined from those first fleeting glimpses in the sky blue, foreshadowing of the glory days to come.
It hasn’t always been plain sailing.
Foden and Mason Greenwood were both sent home by England boss Gareth Southgate in 2020 after footage emerged of the pair bringing girls back to the team hotel in Iceland. They were fined and it overshadowed their international debuts. City called it ‘totally unacceptable’.
Gareth Southgate saw the potential in him and never lost faith, declaring: ‘We know what he is capable of doing and he is one who is going to be exciting for the next few years for England.’
Calling him exciting now looks like a gross understatement, but what were we to know?
Things weren’t always rosy at City either. Foden was offered another reminder by Guardiola in late 2021, after he and Jack Grealish were pictured on a night out and dropped for a match against Newcastle.
Foden has also had to deal with off-field problems after his mother Claire Rowlands was arrested and fined following a drunken incident where she flicked a man’s cap off his head.
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He grew up in a modest end-terrace house squeezed beside a parade of nondescript takeaways and beauty salons in Stockport
‘The only thing I want from Phil is to control his life, on and off the pitch, be more professional, more focused, I know how he loves to play football but football is not just what you do on the pitch,’ Guardiola said. ‘He already has a family and that is so good for him, he has a girlfriend and two babies.’
If there were rumblings of behavioural trouble in those juvenile years, Foden has shedded that image and is now recognised as a model professional.
A haul of 24 goals and 10 assists this season speaks for his talismanic prowess. It is his most fertile campaign yet.
Earlier in the season, he scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa in a 4-1 win, a dazzling display. Guardiola declared that he ‘can do whatever he wants’ in the wake of that.
The next game he started on the bench for a rest – not what he wanted. And what highlights his status the most is how the conversation around that game focused on whether De Bruyne, one of the best playmakers ever, deserved to replace him.
Foden isn’t one to listen to the history books. He wants to establish an entirely new library of history.
A record fourth consecutive top-flight English crown is in his crosshairs.
‘We know if we win the Premier League this time we will have done something new. It’s something we have our eyes on,’ he told Mail Sport last month.
‘Every time we put our boots on at the training ground that saying is there on the wall. It says: ‘Nobody has won four Premier Leagues in a row…yet.’ We want to put ourselves in history.
‘Every day I sit and look at that slogan and I think: ‘Why not?”
