PHIL Foden became the youngest Englishman to start a Champions League match, when he started his side’s 2-1 loss to Shakhtar Donetsk.

17-Year-Old Phil Foden made his first start for Manchester City in yesterday’s Champions League defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.

At 17 Years and 192 days, the youngster from Stockport broke the record previously set by Josh McEachran for Chelsea.

It has been a fantastic 2017 so far for Foden, who has broke into the City senior team and made a name for himself at international level.

Foden has been a part of Manchester City since he was nine years old, and signed a professional contract for the club just last year.

He gathered more attention from football fans around England after he scored twice in the final against Spain to win the Under-17 World Cup in October.

This achievement of the Under-17’s added to the victory for the U20’s in the same competition and the U21’s who made it to the semi-finals of the European Championships. 2017 has been a landmark year for English youth football.

[pullquote]”It was an amazing experience. I’m happy for me and Brahim to get game time and hopefully we can get more if we get our heads down and keep working hard” Phil Foden speaking after City Vs Feyenoord[/pullquote]

The 2017/18 season has been a breakout year for Foden, who has been named on the bench several times in the Premier League. His debut came against Feyenoord two weeks ago as a substitute for Yaya Toure and was most recently named in the starting line-up against Shakhtar Donetsk.

City’s manager Pep Guardiola praised Foden along with his fellow young players in last night’s post match press conference: “I’m so pleased with how well they played in the Champions League. They were resilient and talented players and the people saw it.”

Youngest Champions League debutants

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