Foden gets maiden England Under-21 call-up

Highly rated Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden has received his first England Under-21s call-up.

Foden, 18, has attracted praise on a regular basis from his club manager Pep Guardiola, who already regards him as a “great, great player”.

The City academy product has only featured eight times in the Premier League in his career, all of which have been from the bench.

However, the Under-17 World Cup winner starred in a 3-0 EFL Cup win over Oxford United last week, getting a goal and an assist.

Even though he is by no means a regular for his club, Foden was said to be in with a shot of getting into Gareth Southgate’s senior squad for upcoming Nations League matches against Spain and Croatia.

1 – Phil Foden (18 years, 120 days) is the first player born since the turn of the millennium to score a competitive goal for Manchester City in any competition. Star. pic.twitter.com/8A3W8S07yD

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 25, 2018

His former City team-mate Jadon Sancho – now at Borussia Dortmund – was included by Southgate on Thursday, but Foden was left out, as the likes of Harry Winks, Mason Mount and James Maddison got the nod.

Nevertheless, he will have the chance to impress for the first time at the level below, with Aidy Boothroyd granting Foden a promotion from the Under-19s for two key qualifiers.

Harvey Barnes and Reiss Nelson – enjoying loan spells at West Brom and Hoffenheim from Leicester City and Arsenal respectively – have also received their first call-ups.

Harvey Barnes has been included in @England’s Under-21s squad for the first time after an impressive start to the 2018/19 season 

— Leicester City (@LCFC) October 5, 2018

England host Andorra on October 11 before facing Scotland away five days later, needing just a point to book their place in next year’s European Under-21 Championship in Italy and San Marino.

England Under-21s squad in full:

Dean Henderson (Sheffield United), Angus Gunn (Southampton), Freddie Woodman (Newcastle United); Ben Chilwell (Leicester City), Jake Clarke-Salter (Vitesse), Dael Fry (Middlesbrough), Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), Ezri Konsa (Brentford), Fikayo Tomori (Derby County), Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham Hotspur), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Crystal Palace); Harvey Barnes (West Brom), Lewis Cook (Bournemouth), Tom Davies (Everton), Kieran Dowell (Everton), Josh Onomah (Sheffield Wednesday), Phil Foden (Manchester City); Tammy Abraham (Aston Villa), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Ademola Lookman (Everton), Reiss Nelson (Hoffenheim), Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham), Dominic Solanke (Liverpool).