Phil Foden Left Out of Manchester City's Captaincy Group
Enzo Maresca has drawn his leadership lines at Manchester City – and Phil Foden is on the outside of the official group.
The new City manager has confirmed a four-man captaincy team for the season, with Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland, Marc Guehi and Gianluigi Donnarumma handed the armbands. Foden, 26 and long seen as the face of the club’s academy success, was considered but ultimately left out of the formal hierarchy.
“The captain is Ruben, Erling, Marc Guehi and Gianluigi Donnarumma,” Maresca told reporters on Friday, laying out the structure with no ambiguity.
Dias and Haaland were the predictable pillars. The real statement came with the promotion of Guehi and Donnarumma, two newer arrivals trusted to help shape the dressing room under the Italian.
Maresca made a point of underlining what Foden means to City. He called him “a guy from the house”, a nod to the Stockport-born playmaker’s roots and his connection with the supporters. The omission, though, came down to one key factor in the manager’s mind: proven leadership experience elsewhere.
“First of all, because Marc was already captain with Palace,” Maresca explained. “So he has the experience. Gigio is the captain of the Italy national team, so he has the experience. The reason why I decided for them is because I can see them helping the teammates and the dressing room to behave in the right way.”
That experience trumped sentiment. Even so, Maresca was keen not to leave the impression that Foden had been pushed to the margins.
“These are the four that are going to be the captains,” he said. “But I was also thinking about Phil, because Phil is one of the guys from the house. He’s not in that group, but for me he’s also one of the captains, one of the players that belong to that group.”
So Foden loses the title, not the status. Inside the camp, Maresca clearly still sees him as part of the club’s core leadership, even if he won’t wear the armband from the first whistle.
Foden’s role: heart of the pitch, sacrificed for the system
The debate over Foden’s influence has not stopped at captaincy. It has extended onto the pitch, where his role has already shifted under Maresca.
With Jeremy Doku sidelined, Foden has started the Premier League campaign out on the right wing, plugging a gap rather than occupying his favoured central slot.
“I think Phil’s best position is in the middle,” Maresca insisted. He did not dance around it. “But he’s doing an effort to help the team. Because for the first two games we didn’t have options in the wide area, because Jeremy was injured.
“No doubt that Phil’s position in the middle is much better. But I’m very, very happy with Phil since day one. He’s working very good, even when he has played wide in the last two games, he was good.”
That willingness to move Foden around the frontline says plenty about how Maresca views him. Not as a luxury No 10 who must be indulged, but as an elite, adaptable footballer trusted to solve problems when injuries bite.
Inside the club, the message is clear: the 2023-24 PFA Player of the Year is expected to embrace different roles for the sake of the collective. Maresca praised the way Foden has handled those demands, highlighting his professionalism despite being dragged away from his preferred pockets between the lines.
You can sense the coach’s conviction when he talks about Foden’s intelligence and versatility. “You can see that inside the pitch he’s much better,” Maresca said of his central work. “But at the end, Phil is going to play in a different position. Because he’s a good and good players, they can play in different positions.”
The armband may sit elsewhere for now. The responsibility will not. For Foden, this season looks set to test a different kind of authority: not the authority of a title, but the authority of a player who leads by how, and where, he plays.
