Less than six minutes into England’s Euro 2020 campaign, in the dazzling Wembley sunshine, a bleach-blond Phil Foden stands up a scrambling Croatia defender, shimmies inside onto his left foot, curls the ball low past goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, then watches in dismay as his shot ricochets back off the base of the post.
A couple of inches to the right, and perhaps that strike would have launched the summer of Phil, a breakthrough on the international stage for the most exciting English player of his generation, whose football genius as much as his barnet has ignited hopes of a Gazza Euro ’96-style campaign.
