Rodri predicts PFA Player of the Year Foden could be England´s best-ever player

Rodri predicted Phil Foden could go on to become England’s greatest-ever player after he was crowned PFA Players’ Player of the Year for the 2023-24 season on Tuesday.

Foden added the top men’s PFA prize to the Premier League Player of the Season award he won in May, having inspired Manchester City to their fourth straight league title last term.

He scored 19 league goals and added eight assists in 2023-24, including vital hat-tricks against Brentford and Aston Villa and a stunning final-day strike versus West Ham.

Rodri was also considered among the contenders for the PFA prize after going unbeaten through all 34 of his Premier League appearances last season (27 wins, seven draws), but the Spaniard believes his team-mate was a worthy victor.

“I’m so, so happy about Phil. To be honest he’s a very good kid, a very shy kid. For me, he has the ability to be the best English player in history when he finishes his career,” Rodri said at Tuesday’s award ceremony.

“He needs to keep the level up in his game, already he’s one of the best players in the league and in Europe.

“I think he could get even better. The quality, ambition and hard work he has every day listening to old people like me is very important.

“He was outstanding last season and it’s the first season I saw him carrying the team on his back.”

2010 – Phil Foden is the first English man to win the PFA Player’s Player of the Year award since Wayne Rooney in 2010, and the first to do so in the same year as winning the title since John Terry in 2005. Recognised. pic.twitter.com/s5MQMBCdxj

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 20, 2024

Foden is the first Englishman to win the PFA Player’s Player of the Year award since Wayne Rooney in 2010, and the first to do so in the same year as winning the Premier League title since John Terry in 2005.

Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland, who joined Rodri and Foden in being voted into the PFA Premier League Team of the Year, was also effusive in his praise for the England man.

“He’s a great guy, I really enjoy playing with him and joking with him,” Haaland said.

“Phil is unbelievable, some of the stuff he does in training that no one sees is also incredible, I’m lucky to play with him.”