It’s a pity, but hardly a surprise, that we haven’t seen more of Phil Foden this season.

The Manchester City midfielder, who doesn’t turn 18 until May, enjoyed a whirlwind second half of 2017 and is now a name that most football fans in England are familiar with.

Foden was hailed by City boss Pep Guardiola after a series of impressive performances on the club’s pre-season tour of the United States last summer and then played a starring role at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India a few months later.

The teenage midfielder, who lit up the tournament with his fantastic technique and vision, won the Golden Ball as England lifted the trophy following a superb 5-2 win over Spain in the final.

To cap off a remarkable year, Foden then won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award - an individual accolade previously won by the likes of Wayne Rooney, tennis player Andy Murray, Theo Walcott and Olympic diver Tom Daley.

But despite his obvious talent, becoming a first-team regular at City, where competition for places is extremely fierce, was never going to be easy for the youngster.

Guardiola has used him on seven occasions this season - but most of those appearances have been cameo appearances from the subs’ bench.

Foden came on in stoppage time v Chelsea

Foden came on for the final moments of City’s 1-0 win over Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, replacing Man of the Match David Silva in the third minute of stoppage time.

The Englishman barely had barely broke sweat before referee Michael Oliver blew the full-time whistle.

Gary Neville loved what Foden did after the match

However, former Manchester United captain Gary Neville, on co-commentary duty for Sky Sports at the Etihad Stadium, was recording his podcast shortly after the match when he saw something from Foden which delighted him.

“I’m actually just watching Phil Foden out on the pitch and he’s practicing and you might think why am I mentioning that?” Neville said towards the end of his podcast. “I’m mentioning that because I don’t see enough of it and actually I’m delighted to see him out there with the fitness coach, about to do some work on his own and I like it.

“I like the fact that he’s a young player who’s taking responsibility for his performance; he’s come on for a couple of minutes but he’s out there - he wants to play.”

Fair play to the lad. Most players would have headed straight back to the dressing room to join in with the post-match celebrations but Foden clearly has that hunger and desire required to become a top player.

Neville: I saw something similar from Milner this season

“I think it was James Milner we saw a few months ago after a Liverpool game, he came out on his own and did some running,” Neville added, remembering what Milner did after Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Arsenal at the start of the season.

“The ones who get to the end of their careers are the ones who do this, so we can talk about Chelsea today, maybe not showing that passion and spirit, but there’s a young player out there on the pitch who’s desperate to play - he’s out there running - so let’s finish on a high note, shall we?”

Well said, Gary.

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