Twelve months ago, Phil Foden was on top of the world, scooping the Premier League Player of the Year award having just fired his Manchester City side to a fourth consecutive league title.
The then-23-year-old had scored a brace against West Ham on the final day – sticking one in the top corner from 35 yards out – and the world was finally his oyster. The Euros with England. Hopes of another Treble. The rest.
Except it didn’t work out that way. Foden started every game for England but struggled out in Germany. He would have a slow start to the season with City and endure a campaign light years away from his last. It was all, simply, going wrong.
Earlier this season, Foden blamed ‘mental fatigue’ for his poor form. ‘I just need a few weeks off it without playing football and obviously I can’t get it at the moment,’ he said.
Now, he has his wish. Foden has been left out Thomas Tuchel‘s second England squad on the back of fatigue and an ankle injury and will be able to enjoy some time off before the Club World Cup with City next month.
That could mean more time at home with his family. Still only 24, Foden has three children – a son born in 2019, a daughter born in 2021 and another child born during Euro 2024.
His long-term girlfriend Rebecca Cooke, is regarded as ‘the ultimate WAG’.
Phil Foden, pictured with girlfriend Rebecca, has lived a topsy-turvy life over the last few years
Foden celebrated winning a fourth successive title for Manchester City with his family in 2024
Cooke stepped out with Foden for a team dinner earlier this week, with the Stockport native joining Foden’s team-mates for City great Kevin De Bruyne’s leaving party in Manchester.
Dressed in all-black, Rebecca picked a plunging, sleeveless jumpsuit that showed off her cleavage, toned midriff and golden tan, as Rebecca also wore a big smile while posing for pictures with her footballer boyfriend.
Their most recent appearance came after the couple sparked engagement rumours when Rebecca was spotted wearing a large diamond ring on her ring finger in February.
At the time, it was reported that the Premier League star whisked Rebecca away on a romantic trip to Paris for New Year’s Eve, where he reportedly proposed.
In photos, Rebecca – who has been with Phil since they were both teenagers – was seen trying to conceal the large ring while out and about. Nothing, though, has been confirmed – and it’s not always been rosy.
The England star has been with long-term girlfriend Rebecca Cooke since they were young
The couple have three children together and do not shy away from dressing up to head out
Foden’s mum Claire Rowlands (right) appeared to get punched in 2022, while she has also had a run-in with the police
Foden with mother Claire (right) and girlfriend Rebecca (in red) at the 2022 World Cup
Pep Guardiola hit out at Manchester United fans who chanted about Foden’s mother earlier this season
In 2022, Foden had a bust-up with Cooke on a beach after she looked at his phone.
Cooke shouted: ‘Do you think I’m a d***head?’ before leaving the beach club in Corfu, adding: ‘We can’t take you anywhere, this always happens.’ Video showed Rebecca yelling at Foden as the pair follow two bouncers up steps to a club at Glyfada Beach and jabbed her thumb at the winger.
A holiday maker said: ‘I think it was to do with other women. What it looked like was he was refusing photos, but when women came up to him it was different.’
It wasn’t the first time he has been involved in a public spat, either. In 2022, Foden’s mum, Claire Rowlands, appeared to get punched after she and her son were verbally abused in a corridor at Manchester’s AO Arena at a boxing event headlined by Amir Khan and Kell Brook.
In January 2024, meanwhile, Rowlands was kicked out of a nightclub and put in handcuffs after knocking a hat from a fellow partygoer’s head.
The footballer’s mum had been enjoying a night out with friends and ended up downing shots of vodka and tequila before showing off her ‘party trick’ of flicking a man’s hat off, Llandudno magistrates’ court was told.
It all came to a head earlier this year when Rowlands was targeted by Manchester United fans, with sections of supporters chanting that Rowlands is a ‘s**g’.
But within her family she is the nurturing pillar of strength for football star Foden and his four siblings Callum, Kenzi, Lois and Avayah, who were raised together on a Greater Manchester council estate. Now, Foden is living it large, having recently moving out of a £3million mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire, after a raucous party led to the police being called.
In 2022, Foden had a bust-up with Cooke on a beach after she looked at his phone
In January 2024, Rowlands was kicked out of a nightclub and put in handcuffs after knocking a hat from a fellow partygoer’s head
In 2020, meanwhile, Foden and Mason Greenwood were exiled from the England squad after inviting girls back to their room
Foden does, though, earn £200,000 a week at Man City and have a family that loves him
Foden also attracted the wrong type of headlines in 2020 when he, alongside Mason Greenwood, invited girls into the England team hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The pair made arrangements with an Icelandic model and her friend to come to the official team hotel, which was under strict quarantine rules.
Foden and Greenwood were immediately ejected from the England squad as a result by manager Gareth Southgate, and Lara Clausen told Mail Online that she slept with the midfielder only hours after he made his debut for the Three Lions against Iceland, without knowing about his girlfriend and young son.
When all is said and done, though, £200,000 a week and a family that loves you isn’t too bad. A trip to Barcelona to play Andorra and a home friendly against Senegal aren’t exactly the be all and end all.
A Foden on fire is what is best for him, Manchester City and England. This season, he has been so far away from the flames. But resting the mind, it seems, is just as important as resting the body.
Foden will always have homes in the City and England teams if he wants them. It would help him if he played well – and the rest could be the trigger for him to do just that.
