Phil Foden knows what it is like to be confident of winning a World Cup - and he has got the same feeling as he heads into Qatar 2022.
The Manchester City star won the Golden Ball for the tournament’s best player at the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup and scored twice in England's 5-2 win over Spain in the final. Foden says he KNEW before that competition that England would be victorious and he is almost as bullish going into his first senior World Cup.
He said: “I do remember strongly the team just being so confident. It’s the same here. Obviously from the Euros, making it to the final gives the team a big lift. I think Harry (Kane) has already touched on it. He sees us as one of the favourites. We’ve just got to be confident and believe in that.”
Foden intends to remind the rest of Gareth Southgate’s squad that he has a major international honour to his name and tell them how the under-17s self-assurance paid dividends.
He said: “I don’t think they realise. I’m going to have to tell them that I’ve already won the World Cup, aren’t I? Not being big-headed but we just knew that we were going to win the World Cup because of how good we were and the talent we had.
“Even when we were behind in the final, you could just see we carried on playing the same way and just believed that we were going to win it. It was so good just to be a part of that group. It was very special.”
Only James Maddison - managing his workload after suffering with a slight knee problem - sat out training yesterday as England prepare for their Group B opener against Iran on Monday.
