FODEN REPAYS THE FAITH
OUT on the touchline, in acres of space, Phil Foden raised his arm. He stayed that way for a couple of seconds, hoping someone would see him, before he began waving.
Still, there was no recognition, so Foden became increasingly animated, stretching out both arms and straining them in the way an enthusiastic schoolkid would do when they know the answer to a question but cannot get their teacher’s attention.
Only 10 minutes had been played but, already, he seemed to be consumed by frustration. Michael Sheen, in that gloriously evocative speech of his that went viral, roared that
England were a different beast with him on left
Wales would bring ‘crimson thunder’ but the only thing crimson and thunderous here was the look on Foden’s face.
The Manchester City forward is not someone who wastes his words, never using two sentences when one will do, but he would make a terrible card player as his emotions are written all over his face, those big eyes of his a window into his soul.
This might seem an obvious thing to say but Foden is someone who simply loves football and doing creative things, and perhaps this little story will give you an indication of the kind of enthusiasm he has for the game.
During the Under 21 European Championship in 2019, the then head coach Aidy Boothroyd gave his players a day off while they were in Italy to try to get over a defeat by France. Some of the squad, which included James Maddison and Mason Mount, went shopping, others went for coffee.
Foden, by contrast, spent his time playing football with his younger siblings in the back garden of a villa his family had rented.
He was so obsessed by having a ball at his feet and doing tricks and skills, by the end of the afternoon his T-shirt was dripping with sweat.
‘Once you step on the pitch, everything else goes away,’ Foden said in an interview that has been published in this month’s edition of Esquire magazine. ‘In my head, it’s like, “Right this is time to show everyone what I can do”. I thought I was good at ignoring everything.’
It would have been impossible for him to ignore, however, the debate that has raged since Gareth Southgate failed to introduce him during Friday’s charmless 0-0 draw with the United States in Al Khor, a decision that — even by England standards — was greeted with freakish opprobrium.
Southgate is past the point of worrying about what public opinion is over the decisions he makes. Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, he hasn’t risen to the barbs and the snipes and the way in which he has handled the most gifted young English footballer since Wayne Rooney.
Even still, it was fascinating to hear Southgate explain at length why Foden had not come on in Al Khor and outline his concerns that the weight of expectation could be inhibiting.
Unlike some of his critics, Southgate thinks before he speaks and doesn’t do anything to jeopardise his team’s progress.
He would have been sure, then, that Foden was ready to take on Wales and certainly didn’t include him in the starting line-up as a populist choice. England’s No 20 was on from the start because Southgate
knew the kind of damage he could inflict.
In that draining first period, however, you could see frustration building inside.
The arm- waving became more pronounced, his face was contorted in angst on more than one occasion — most obviously in the 40th minute, when he had burst into the area to try to find a breakthrough.
Marcus Rashford had scurried into the area but got his cross completely wrong, enabling Wales’s defenders to clear. Foden looked as if he wanted to cry in frustration, knowing an accurate cross would have presented a tap-in from six yards. Back he went out to the right wing, standing in space again, waiting to see if anything would come his way.
When the whistle went for the break, he stomped off to the dressing room on his own and it would have taken a brave man to speak to him.
he looked how everyone felt. england went back and forth, side to painful side, but never into the zone that would have left a cumbersome Welsh team gasping for breath.
Foden knew it was a game he could leave his fingerprints on but all he wanted was some service.
Then came the switch that changed everything. Rashford moved out to the right, Foden went over to the left and england were a different beast in the second period, enabling this little magician from Stockport to show what he could do.
When Rashford opened the scoring with a quite beautiful free-kick, Foden raced over with the celebrating throng and saw his family in the crowd, blowing kisses and waving to them in the manner of someone who couldn’t quite believe he was living out a childhood dream.
The reason Foden is on this stage, though, is because his ability is monstrous and in the next attack he had his first
World Cup goal, arriving at the back post to deliver the finish that a cross from harry Kane demanded before celebrating with joyous abandon.
Foden didn’t need to score a goal to remind us of what he can do and Southgate didn’t need to pick him to prove the esteem in which he holds him. But, undoubtedly, this secondhalf performance will have done them both the power of good.
Nobody should be getting carried away about england’s chances of world domination but they will tackle Senegal on Sunday with their confidence brimming — Foden more so than anyone.