Pep urges Foden to manage the hype

London – Pep Guardiola has urged Phil Foden (right) to keep his feet on the ground amid growing acclaim for Manchester City’s bright young star.

Foden has been one of the key figures in City’s surge to the top of the Premier League.

The 20-year-old midfielder underlined his quality with a virtuoso display in Sunday’s 4-1 rout of Liverpool.

During City’s run of 14 successive victories in all competitions, Foden has delivered six goals and three assists in his last 10 starts.

The way he tore Liverpool to pieces in the closing stages at Anfield was hailed by pundits as a “coming of age” moment for a player whose potential has been obvious for some time.

But City manager Guardiola believes Foden still has room for improvement and told him not to get carried away with the hype.

“It will be different for him,” Guardiola said. “He has to be calm and understand the tough periods are going to come. It depends if he’s humble for this.

“The expectations at that age, we’ll see if he can handle it. Now people will expect him to do exceptional things every game, this is the most difficult thing.

“The greatest players don’t play one great match at Anfield. They stay five years in a row being consistent, not being injured and playing, playing, playing. This is the next target for Phil,” said Guardiola.

Foden’s 100th City appearance came against West Bromwich Albion at the end of last month, but given the excitement around the academy product, there has long been an impatience for him to play a bigger role.

Foden was sent home in disgrace by England last year after he and Mason Greenwood brought women to the team hotel in Iceland breach of Covid-19 protocols.

But Guardiola never lost faith in Foden over that incident and always felt he would overcome his initial struggles to break into such a talented City team. –

New York – The 2021 Super Bowl was watched by 96.4 million people across all platforms, the host broadcaster has said, the lowest viewership since 2007 – despite record-smashing streaming audiences.

The NFL championship match is the most-watched TV event of the year in the United States.

Some 102.3 million people tuned in for last year’s Super Bowl.

By comparison, the second-most watched event was another American football game which recorded 43 million views.

Sunday’s Super Bowl was billed as a duel between legendary 43-year-old quarterback Tom Brady of Tampa Bay and wunderkind Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City. –