Phil Foden contract extension: Did England forward consider Manchester City exit? | OneFootball

Phil Foden’s desire to stay at Manchester City never wavered despite a difficult start to 2026 wherein he fell out of Pep Guardiola’s starting plans, as per a new report.

The 25-year-old agreed a fresh four-year contract at the Etihad Stadium this week, keeping him at his boyhood club until the summer of 2030 and ending any uncertainty over his future.

Phil Foden was approaching the final 12 months of his deal and had lost his starting place since the turn of the year, with Rayan Cherki and January signing Antoine Semenyo establishing themselves ahead of him in City’s attacking hierarchy.

Despite that, sources close to Foden make clear he gave no thought to leaving the club- his heart was set on staying throughout.

Report: Foden’s commitment to City never in doubt

The update is a significant one given the speculation that had begun to surface around Foden’s future as his contract ticked down – amid interest from Barcelona and Bayern Munich – and his role under Guardiola diminished in the second half of the season.

Those in his circle are unambiguous, however – leaving Manchester City was never a consideration, as cited in a new report by ESPN’s Rob Dawson.

The club he joined as a child, the club at which he has spent his entire career and the club that handed him the platform to won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award for the 2023-24 season remained the only destination he wanted to be at, regardless of what was happening on the pitch.

Dissecting Foden’s recent struggles at Man City

Foden endured a turbulent 2024-25 campaign, admitting to mental and physical struggles in a range of interviews and acknowledging that “some things are bigger than football” in explaining his inconsistency.

He won his place back in Guardiola’s starting XI in the autumn of 2025 before losing it again from January – a period that raised genuine questions from outside about whether his long-term future lay elsewhere. Those questions, it seems, were never ones Foden was asking himself.

His new four-year deal ensures that Manchester City‘s most decorated academy graduate will be at the Etihad Stadium for the foreseeable future – and with a domestic treble still on the line in the final weeks of the season, there may yet be time for Foden to leave his mark on this campaign before it concludes.