Phil Foden’s fresh start: A new coach, a new contract and a will to prove himself again

Phil Foden is standing on a floating football pitch in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, talking about a fresh start and a fresh mind as he looks ahead to a new era at Manchester City.

He has just signed a new four-year contract and is chosen, alongside Abdukodir Khusanov and Ryan McAidoo, to launch City’s new away kit in front of 1,500 fans on their East Asian pre-season tour. His name is called loudest by fans and he laughs as Khusanov is asked for his thoughts on the shirt and says only, in his blunt way, “very good”.

The subtext around the need for that fresh start is obvious. As much as things will change following the departure of Pep Guardiola as manager, the last two years for Foden have been difficult, to say the least, going from the Premier League Player of the Year in 2024 to being left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup, one he had expected to make.

Foden has plenty of thoughts on how things have gone for him, the good and the bad, but the actual root cause appears harder to explain.

“Yeah, I’m not really sure, just football I suppose,” he says. “I don’t know. I can’t really explain. It just happens. Rhythm and performance, sometimes it drops, sometimes it’s there for whatever reason.”

Tuchel called Foden to let him know he would not be part of his plans for the summer and Enzo Maresca, the new City manager, called to offer his support, one of only two players he contacted before his official unveiling.

“He reached out just after to see if it was OK, which was very nice of him; it shows us the character and the person he is. He cares about everyone and wants to have a good relationship with the team.

“It was a difficult first week or two, and then after that,” he says with a broad smile, “I was enjoying the holidays.”

It was a quiet summer for Foden. With no World Cup, he went on holiday with his family and then spent time fishing in France. Fish in his regular local lake were spawning in their thousands, providing plenty of action. He did watch the England games, too.

“It was hard, obviously seeing England come out and then the national anthem and stuff like that. I did watch it and just thought I was going to do it.”

He has arrived in Hong Kong ready for action. Those around City’s very first training sessions say that he, as well as McAidoo and Antoine Semenyo, look particularly sharp. On City’s first night in town, he took a walk down to the Bruce Lee statue in Tsim Sha Tsui and was mobbed by fans.

Maresca, when asked about Foden ahead of City’s first pre-season game against Inter on Saturday, said it is his “duty” to help him get back to his best.

“First of all to be happy, for him that is the most important thing,” Maresca said. “Phil in a good condition and a good mood can help us to win games and to win titles.”

This time last year, Foden spoke about the need to “get my head mentally right” as he hoped to get back to the high standards he set in 2023-24, when he was integral to City’s fourth Premier League title in a row.

It looked like he was on the road to recovery by the end of 2025, scoring six goals in four Premier League games and a fine double against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, but almost as soon as 2026 began, it looked like the magic had deserted him and his first-team opportunities quickly dried up.

“It was like a season of two halves for me,” he says. “I think the first half of it was really good. I performed quite well, and in the second half I couldn’t really get going and didn’t get a lot of game time.

“Obviously I’m an adaptable player as well, so it doesn’t help sometimes when you’re changing a lot of positions and it’s hard to maintain the performance of one position, but sometimes it just happens. It’s football. People who were playing in front of me were performing very well as well. And sometimes that’s just the way it is.

“I think everyone forgets about the first half of the season; they just write it off and say, ‘Yet another bad season’. But that’s life for a player. These kinds of things happen. You’ve got to always perform every single game. But as I touched on, playing in different positions, maybe I didn’t find the rhythm at the right time and seasons slipped away. But it’s a fresh start now, and hopefully that doesn’t happen again.”

Even if that versatility has counted against him at times, it is not something he wants to change. He played deep in midfield at times last season — “I did love it, I felt I could show a different side to my game” — but Guardiola always wanted him closer to the goal, and that is where Foden wants to be, too.

“Left pocket or right pocket really, anywhere in those positions,” he says when looking ahead to his role under Maresca.

Mentally, he appears to be in a good place. He did not dwell too much on that side of things, other than to say how things have changed.

“Fresh mind and I feel much better now,” he says. “Feeling happy and back to myself, so that is important to me.”

Considering the last two seasons, City’s offer of a new contract, with talks starting at the end of last year, could be considered a show of faith that others may not have been afforded. When discussing the future with agents this summer, City director of football Hugo Viana has said that Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland are considered fundamental.

If anybody is a special case, though, it is surely Foden, the boy who started training at the club at six years old, and has risen through the ranks to win 19 major trophies. He says he never considered leaving the club, and that he hopes to retire there. “Hopefully,” he says. “If they still want me when I am 30.

“It just made me feel steady,” he says of the contract. “It’s made me feel relaxed now and just concentrate on being the best version of me and give back to the football club for them trusting in me.

“It is nice to see the support from the club and obviously it means a lot. And as I said, it’s about time I try to repay them and give back to the club.”

Foden was last in Hong Kong when City visited in 2019, back at the beginning of his time in the first team. He returns as the club’s longest-serving player, at 26 years old, a process helped along by a radical overhaul of the playing squad in the past two years.

Almost 23,000 attended City’s open training session at the Kai Tak Stadium on Friday, and Foden was the centre of attention. One flag with several different pictures of him in action for City, with the caption, ‘My seventh year of loving you. I’ll always support you’. Another fan held up a cardboard sign that read, ‘Next season is yours! Always support you!’

Whether at home or abroad, there is that sense that everybody connected to City wants the best for Foden. As he wraps up the interview in Hong Kong’s incredible humidity, he reflects on that 2023-24 season, when he put the team on his shoulders and got them through a nervy title race with Arsenal.

“It’s obviously unbelievable because you come through the academy, reach the top and then have been the best player of the season, won the league that year as well, so it’s obviously amazing.

“I have a good attitude about that. When you’re on top, don’t get too comfortable and then always try to prove it again. Obviously it’s not going to be like that at the moment, but I have still got a lot of my career left.

“I am still young, so I have still got a lot to prove to everyone. Hopefully I can do it.”