13 April 2024 , 16:23
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Graeme Souness believes Phil Foden should get the nod ahead of Martin Odegaard when it comes to the Player of the Year award.
The two playmakers have been sensational for Manchester City and Arsenal respectively. Both men are looking to end the year as a Premier League champion but Souness believes the City academy graduate is narrowly ahead of the Norwegian.
Foden's influence at the Etihad has grown with every passing year and he continues to put in stellar performances. His latest display of brilliance was on the European stage against Real Madrid, but he's had numerous match-winning cameos in the Premier League.
Souness told the Daily Mail: "‘The votes are being cast for the footballer of the year and Arsenal’s captain Martin Odegaard will have to be in the mix. However, Manchester City’s Phil Foden gets my vote. He has been outstanding. He appears to have that attitude where he wants to learn something new every day in training and we are seeing a real superstar in the making.
"His goal against Real Madrid in midweek summed him up. Calmness under pressure, he shifted the ball out of his feet and hit it so smoothly. He is a terrific striker of the ball. The standard of the quarter-finals were everything you would hope for.
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"A fabulous watch, a great advert for Champions League football and Manchester City and Arsenal have nothing to fear going into the second legs. The only problem is every one of those teams will be thinking the same. That’s the mentality of the best players."
Foden already has five Premier League medals to his name having burst onto the scene early in the Pep Guardiola era. He's broken the 20-goal barrier for the first time in his career.
Martin Odegaard has been among the Premier League's outstanding performersAfter the recent Manchester derby victory for City, which saw Foden score a brace, Guardiola claimed that his young playmaker was the finest player in the English top flight. “He is the best player in the Premier League," said the Catalan. “It is the amount of games he is playing. He was always a talented player, but now he is more mature and understands more the game, especially defensively.
“He’s unbelievable. Winning games is when you become a world-class player. When he scores two goals, that gives me more pleasure than the other stuff [defensive work]. But the guy who doesn’t do that is not allowed to stay in this team.”
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