Raheem Sterling wore the armband during Manchester City’s Carabao Cup quarter-final victory over Oxford United on Wednesday evening. The England international led the team through to the semi-finals of the competition where they will now face Manchester United but the supporters have identified somebody else as their future captain.
Fan favourite and boyhood supporter of the club Phil Foden is seen by these supporters as the future skipper and they made that clear on social media as he praised his captain on the night, adding that the armband suits him.
Will Foden go on to be the Man City captain in seasons to come?
Yes
No
Incredible again today, future captain??
— Sam? (@mcfcsam_) December 18, 2019
Great performance today Phil ?
— injury fc ?? (@mxncityszn) December 18, 2019
Well done@PhilFoden.. you’re the future captain
— Teveraishe Mumvuri (@mumvuri_d) December 18, 2019
Future captain keep it up lad???
— Alex Johnson (@Alex_BJohno10) December 18, 2019
One day, you’ll wear it too! ??
— ckalindu_94 (@ckalindu_94) December 19, 2019
We want to see you wear it someday!
— HERUK™ (@scarz29) December 19, 2019
What do we think?
Phil Foden is finally starting to get the game time the supporters feel he deserves and the fact he is ‘one of their own’ goes a long way in terms of the relationship between the player and fans. The 19-year-old certainly has a great future ahead of him but not everybody is captain material, therefore it would be naive to hand him the responsibility solely based on the fact he supported the club as a boy.
It feels as though we’ve been discussing Foden for years now and therefore it’s easy to forget he’s still so young. As far as his career at the top level goes, he’s just getting started and whilst the romantics will be desperate to see him wearing the armband his first port of call is to nail down a regular starting position.