It’s been yet another season to remember for City’s exceptional Academy graduate.
As the curtain fell on the 2022/23 campaign, Phil Foden established himself as one of the most decorated players of his generation with a further trophy-laden term.
For both Club and country (10 outings for England) the dynamic attacker totalled a staggering 58 appearances in all competitions.
As those of a sky blue persuasion have become accustomed to with the 23-year-old, he once again rose to the big occasion for Pep Guardiola’s side in crucial matches - while also enjoying a prolific and record-breaking season.
This was expertly highlighted in our tremendous Manchester derby victory at the Etihad Stadium in early October where his spellbinding performance blew Erik ten Hag’s side out of the water.
In an electric team performance, Foden hit a magnificent hat-trick in our 6-3 success which extended our early season unbeaten run.
By claiming the match ball, he raised his overall total in sky blue to 50 – becoming the youngest player to reach a half century of goals under Guardiola (22 years, 127 days), surpassing the legendary Lionel Messi (22 years, 16 days).
Those three goals also contributed to his best scoring rate in a season where he has started at least 15 games - as his tally of 15 goals saw him strike every 177 minutes on average.
In a season where Erling Haaland was smashing record after record domestically and on the European stage thanks to his goalscoring exploits and Julian Alvarez’s fruitful maiden season at the Etihad Stadium, perhaps the England international’s record flew under the radar.
But his 177 minute average between goals was the third highest within our squad behind the Norwegian and Argentinian frontmen.
As City entered the final furlong of the campaign in our relentless pursuit of the Treble, Foden scored an important opener in our 2-0 win over Champions League chasing Newcastle.
Not only did this earn us three precious Premier League points, but it saw Foden become the youngest City player to reach 50 goals and assists in the division.
In total, Guardiola’s team won 28 out of our 38 league games with our 1-0 win over Chelsea in May not only significant for the Club, but for Foden personally.
Thanks to Nottingham Forest’s win over Arsenal the day before we faced the Londoners, we had already claimed our third successive Premier League crown ahead of kick-off.
A professional performance against Frank Lampard’s side followed and we lifted the title shortly after full-time – but the success represented our Academy graduate’s 100th Premier League win in his 127th outing, making him the fastest player to reach a century of wins in the competition’s history.
Unprecedented.
With fixtures coming thick and fast towards the end of the campaign, Guardiola would often chop and change is starting line-ups to keep his players fit, fresh and firing as we closed in on a magnificent end to the season.
Although he would find himself among the substitutes on occasion, Foden’s importance to the team didn’t diminish.
As Kevin De Bruyne was forced off in our iconic 1-0 Champions League final victory over Inter, the Catalan instinctively turned to the Englishman who delivered an assured and quality display in Istanbul.
As the final whistle blew in Turkey, history was made by the players in sky blue, becoming only the second English team to win the Treble.
And the trio of honours extended Foden’s haul of trophies to 14 in his career to date.
Due to his sparkling trophy cabinet, it’s easy to forget how much football Foden has ahead of him in his relatively fledgling career and he can only get better and better.
