Micah Richards and Alan Shearer think one Manchester City player could have a tournament to remember at Euro 2024.
Several players from Manchester City’s squad could have brilliant tournaments, such as Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku, Spain’s Rodri and Portugal’s Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias.
The English trident of Phil Foden, John Stones and Kyle Walker could also have remarkable tournaments on both an individual and collective basis.
Micah Richards and Alan Shearer make bold Phil Foden claims
In such major tournaments, it is usually the attackers who grab the most attention.
International football, in particular demands players to burden the weight of their nation’s shoulders by producing moments of magic. The role of tactics are not as prevalent in such competitions as international managers do not get the required time to drill their philosophies into their players.
According to Micah Richards and Joe Hart, Foden can win the Player of the Tournament at Euro 2024 whereas Alan Shearer has backed him to do so on BBC Sport.
Richards said: “Phil Foden plays as the number 10, I’ll say Phil Foden. But I don’t think he’ll play as a number 10. So, I’m going to say Kylian Mbappe.”
Joe Hart added: “It’s still going to boil down to who wins it. I think Phil Foden, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe are my three for the potential players of this tournament.”
Alan Shearer stated: “Player of the Tournament, I’m going to go for Phil Foden. I think with the season that he’s had, some of the goals that he’s scored, the number of goals that he’s scored, the assists, his general play has just been superb and I think he can take that into the tournament.”
Micah Richards makes a valid point about Phil Foden
Not many would dispute the points made by Micah Richards, Alan Shearer and Joe Hart about Foden — who certainly is in the form of his life and has the quality to take the competition by storm.
But as Richards stated, how the £225,000-a-week man performs could depend on whether he is played centrally or not.
Considering Foden won the Premier League Player of the Season award from central positions, Richards justifiably feels he could win another individual accolade in his favoured role.
But if not, players like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Toni Kroos and Harry Kane could have a better chance of doing so — being superstars who will play in their natural positions.