Early on, Phil Foden's reputation was pretty much sealed. Dubbed the Stockport Iniesta, his childlike enthusiasm for kicking a ball about is something he has not lost, even after 20 years at Manchester City.

But earlier this season, the 24-year-old found his career had taken a different turn. The squad held meetings to address a collective slump which had seen their league form stall.

For Foden, something wasn't right. His body just didn't feel like it used to.

Just months earlier, his potential had been realised. A player always tipped for the very top, he picked up the three biggest individual awards in England after leading City to a historic fourth consecutive Premier League title.

He has not lost the love for kicking a ball about, being the first and last at training, and even on occasion taking a football with him on the streets near his house. And it felt like life couldn't get better when Foden slapped in a goal at the Etihad inside the opening seconds of their 38th and final league game last season.

Yet within a couple of months he was at the lowest point of his career. For one of the first times, Foden was struggling to love the game he had grown up with.

England and the Euros didn't help. Gareth Southgate did not want to play with two central attacking midfielders and preferred Jude Bellingham in a central role, forcing Foden to the left wing after a season of being the main man for the English and world champions.

It never really worked, and a player who had managed 27 goals and 12 assists for City in a successful campaign did not contribute to a single goal despite England making it all the way to the final, where they would lose to Spain. As pleased as Foden was while England stayed in the tournament, he was left disappointed at what he was being asked to do.

"I feel frustrated I didn't get out what I wanted to get out of it," he told the Manchester Evening News in an exclusive interview. "The position I was put in on the left was very difficult to influence the game.

"Coming off last season being the best player in the Premier League and playing centre-midfield, I do feel the position was quite difficult to get used to. I'm one who can play multiple positions and had to try to deal with it the best I could. I don't feel like England ever get going or performed to our potential."

Despite his and England's struggles, he still started all seven games at the Euros to make it nearly 70 appearances for club and country for the season. Five weeks after defeat to Spain in Berlin, Foden came off the bench in West London to help City through their first Premier League game.

He had reported straight back to duty, but something didn't feel right. He missed the next two matchdays with illness, it would be November before he started consecutive league games and December before he scored his first league goal of the season as he wrestled with physical and mental burnout.

It didn't stop Foden being a part of the squad, either in games or as a voice in the dressing room as the players held group meetings to try to get to the bottom of the collective slump. It just meant Foden wasn't able to give anyone what he had been doing, and that was tough to deal with.

"It was a challenging moment," he said. "I've been playing since the age of five pushing myself every day to be the best I can. It's just the way I am, I've always given 100 per cent in training but when you add up all the game and all the travelling it is a lot for the body.

"I just wasn't feeling 100 per cent when I was training, and then there were a few niggles. There were times when I was getting frustrated a lot because I enjoy my football and want to be out there and when things are not helping you to be 100 per cent it's really difficult to accept that.

"For me, football is played with the brain and when the brain is mentally fatigued you're not going to see a player for who he is. I'm normally itching to get back but when I came back my body and my mental state was low.

"I had a bit of rest, just to give my body time to recover. I took the start of the season very slowly, I didn't play much and I was just resting and trying to get back to myself.

"My body just didn't feel how I was used to and it's something that I've had to deal with. I feel that's the reason why I had a slow start to the season.

"When you start the season good, I feel you have the rest of the season good but I missed periods at the start of the season so I think that's why it's taken me so long to get going. You can't dwell on it too much, these things happen to footballers and I've slowly been getting back to myself."

In recent weeks, Pep Guardiola has definitely noticed that Foden's smile has returned. He is a bigger presence in the dressing room and in training again, and is also contributing more in matches; after no goals in his first 11 league appearances of the season, he now has seven from his last seven including a confident breakaway finish in the 3-1 win over Chelsea on Saturday.

That restored confidence was spotted by supporters as Foden took it upon himself to help new signing Abdukodir Khusanov through his first training session with the squad last week. Having been welcomed up into Guardiola's first team by senior stars when he was just 16, Foden is keen to pay it forward and make sure that any young player - from the academy or brought in via the transfer market - feels as comfortable as they can do if it helps them to feel as good as he still does playing at the Etihad.

"As we're struggling, I'm more able to appreciate last year. For me it was an incredible season and my best in the City shirt," he said. "I've been here for a few years and understand what the manager wants. I do see myself as a leader to the younger ones like [James] McAtee, Rico [Lewis] and players like that. I try to help them as best as I can and on the pitch I want to try and show I'm a leader by turning up in big moments and help the team when I can.

"To have academy players with you in the first team just makes it nicer and we've got some great talent in the team at the moment and if they keep applying themselves every day they will get the opportunity. I just try to help them the best I can, because I've been in their shoes.

"It's still the same feeling when I put that shirt on as when I made my debut - there's no better feeling than playing for the team you've always supported."

City's recovery from a run of nine defeats in 13 games in all competitions is not yet complete but has been boosted by contract extensions. A two-year deal for Guardiola in November and a ten-year deal - the longest in the history of English football - for Erling Haaland this month has reassured fans that there is plenty to be positive about for the future, as has the £120m already splashed out on three January signings aimed at long-term improvements.

Omar Marmoush and Khusanov made their debuts against Chelsea, yet the age of goalscorers Haaland (24), Foden (24) and Josko Gvardiol (23) was a handy reminder that the key figures in the club rebuild may be ones already familiar to the fanbase. Nobody has been around for as long as the kid from Stockport, and in an age where Premier League rivals are selling off homegrown talent to maximise their profits to ensure they comply with spending rules Foden could again be the exception among his generation.

Ranked as the ninth most valuable player in world football at £144m in early 2025, Foden's value to City does not look like it will go down any time soon and while there is no rush over a new deal with his current contract expiring in 2027 there is every chance that the Blues can celebrate another of the best players on the planet committing most if not all of their career to east Manchester.

"I'm not looking anywhere else. I've been here from such a young age, I'm comfortable here and there's no other place that I can see myself at the moment," he said. "You never know for the future but I'm more than happy where I am."

In the meantime, there are more important things to think about. Even more important things than when the weather will improve enough so that Foden can pick back up his mission to get his son Ronnie, six and the eldest of three kids, to develop his passion for fishing.

City are one game away from suffering an embarrassing Champions League exit, knowing that if they do not beat Club Brugge on Wednesday they will fail to make the knockout stages of a competition they won in 2023 for the first time in 12 years. Having collapsed alarmingly last week in Paris when they led 2-0 in the second half, there are no guarantees when they meet the Belgian side at the Etihad in a game that could make or break their season.

For all the struggles the team have had this season and continue to have, the players still believe that their squad is good enough to challenge for the three knockout competitions they could yet win: the Champions League, the FA Cup, and the Club World Cup. Time is running out, however, for them to prove it where it matters and ensure that a season that has not gone how anyone expected can still be deemed successful.

"I think finishing at least top four in the Premier League, aiming to win the Champions League, and the FA Cup as well," said Foden of their ambitions. "Even though it's been a challenging season, we've still got things to look forward to. It was only last season when we won the league. Because we're having a bit of a blip, we can't lose belief in that. I still believe we can do good things and come back from this."

Whether it is this week or the long-term, City can be more confident about the future with their homegrown hero feeling more like himself again.