The moment Phil Foden showed Gareth Southgate why he must unleash him at Euros

ETIHAD — Had Ronaldinho done it, the world would still be oohing and aahing in wonder now.

Yet, what Phil Foden can do with a football should be appreciated in equal measure. Has he ever taken a DNA test to decipher whether he truly is English? Those samba feet don’t normally take their first steps on the streets of Stockport.

In an otherwise routine, unchallenged Manchester City victory that booked the all-conquering Pep Guardiola juggernaut a record sixth-successive FA Cup semi-final spot on Saturday, every now and then, Foden did things with a football that defied physics, in a free role that has unleashed an even more eye-pleasing beast. Newcastle United were not playing the same sport at times.

Foden will have more productive evenings this season – he already has – with his finishing and final pass deserting him too often in the Manchester drizzle, but in a game that looked to be a training exercise from the off, the in-form firebrand was still able to show glimpses of talent one simply has to be born with, normally in Latin heartlands.

Deployed in a free role off Erling Haaland, finally entrusted by Guardiola to be centralised, Foden showed Gareth Southgate just what he could offer an England side more than capable, on an individual basis, of reaching for the stars.

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If Southgate is brave enough to allow Foden to essentially do as he pleases like Guardiola now does – a phenom so good he does not need a defined role – the 23-year-old has shown enough maturity and confidence this season to finally guide England over the final hurdle in Germany.

Just take the masterpiece of gravity-defining finesse late in the first half at the Etihad on Saturday. The ball was fizzed into his feet, with two Newcastle defenders for company, but in a move that befitted the ballroom rather than a football pitch, he somehow flicked it through his legs to leave his markers pirouetting to fathom how he had escaped.

The shimmy deserved to be finished off, but the end product – something he has enhanced tenfold this season – deserted him. Had he done so, we would have been seeing the goal for many years to come.

One of the many benefits of playing for a Guardiola team is the City boss teaches his players how to pick up pockets of half spaces other coaches are not aware of, making his formation as fluid as any in world football.

Foden has taken time to hone his craft and find his calling under Guardiola. For years the naysayers chastised the madcap Catalan for using this generational talent so sparingly, insisting England would suffer from his lack of game time.

What Guardiola has done instead is craft an altogether more frightening beast. As well as helping Foden find those pockets of spaces where one flick can take out an entire opposition backline, Guardiola has allowed Foden time to develop pausa, that ability to let an attacking move develop for one second longer than other mere mortals would before making a pass, to open up even more areas of the pitch to devastating effect.

Guardiola has been critical of Foden in the past for not picking up on this essential element to being a City or Barcelona player, ensuring he was kept out wide, away from a central role everyone else felt he was destined to fulfil from the moment he stepped out of nappies.

There are no such doubts anymore. Not only is Foden starting games as the heir to David Silva’s creative role in the middle of the pitch, he has the full trust of the hardest coach to please. When, on the biggest stages, a player can produce such magic that leaves top-level defenders’ heads spinning, there is no reason not to.