Get the biggest City stories, analysis and transfer window updates delivered straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Kevin De Bruyne is backing England to win Euro 2020 – and thinks Phil Foden may be a part of their successful squad.

The Manchester City teenager made his first Premier League start alongside the Belgium star as the Blues leapt back to the top of the table in a 2-0 win over Cardiff.

And with Callum Hudson-Odoi – who won the Under-17 World Cup with Foden two year ago – making his first league start for Chelsea on the same night, De Bruyne thinks English international football is entering a golden era.

The City ace revealed to MEN Sport that he told teammates Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Fabian Delph that he felt they were ready to lift the country’s first major silverware for 53 years.

“I told the England guys a week ago that you should win the Euros. I think they are favourites, with France,” said De Bruyne.

“I see the guys already established, and those coming up, so the future looks really good.

“Will they win it? I don’t know, because only one team can win it but you have a chance to do well in the next ten years.”

Foden has yet to be called up by England manager Gareth Southgate, even though Hudson-Odoi made his ebut in the last international break and the Stockport lad’s former City youth team pal Jadon Sancho is already established.

But De Bruyne called for patience: “Give him time. It’s not because you play some games, and start a game, that you have to go into the national team.

“If he is in, someone else will have to drop out – top teams are like that.

“Southgate will do what he needs to do and if Phil progresses well he has a chance to go to the Euros next year. He will play enough games for England.

At the same age, De Bruyne was establishing himself in the first team at Genk and made his own international debut at the age of 19 years and two months, four months older than Foden is now.

“People ask me what advice I can give, and it’s that everyone has to go on their own path,” he said.

“You can’t compare what happens with anybody else in their career. He’s happy here, doing really well and he plays a lot of minutes for his age.

“The pressure is more from outside. When England players come to the fore, the English people are on it.

“To play here, in this team, or in any top team in England, where you have 20 star players who are all top internationals who have played five to ten years for their countries and for big teams, and have the minutes he has, is incredible.

“He will play more and more as time goes on, but sometimes it’s difficult because the coach wants to win every game and every cup, and to put young guys in…the task is sometimes very difficult for a manager. But he is doing really well.”