Gary Neville has advised Phil Foden to take back control of his social media accounts after the Manchester City star was reportedly left ‘furious’ by a tweet sent from his personal Twitter account to Kylian Mbappe.
Foden smashed home the winning goal against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday for the second week in succession to book City’s path into the Champions League semi-finals where they will meet Mbappe’s Paris Saint-Germain.
Immediately after City’s win, Foden tagged PSG’s star man in a tweet accompanying a picture of him scoring, writing: “@KMbappe are you ready?”
Fans were quick to jump on the tweet, with many questioning Foden’s motives behind it.
However, according to reports, the tweet was sent by a PR company tasked with looking after Foden’s accounts to help build his profile and engagement with supporters.
(Image: @PhilFoden/Twitter)
As reports The Mail, Foden asked for the tweet to be taken down, though it had already been seen and shared by thousands on the platform.
Mbappe has not responded to the tweet, having helped PSG seal their path to the semis just 24 hours earlier, beating Bayern Munich on aggregate via away goals.
But now former Man Utd defender Neville has offered his thoughts on the situation, urging Foden and other young stars to take charge of their own accounts to avoid similar problems occurring in future.
“I mentioned on here a few weeks ago about players having their accounts run by social media companies. Lads run your own accounts!” Neville tweeted.
(Image: @GNev2/Twitter)
“Your independent thought and authenticity is at stake . It’s your voice , not anyone else’s.”
It is not the first time Neville has raised the issue, as he previously questioned the authenticity of England’s players after they all posted similar run-of-the-mill messages following the victory over Albania at the end of last month.
He wrote: “Reading some of the England players’ tweets last night. Do any of the lads post themselves? They don’t sound authentic.
“It’s a real shame they don’t manage their personal connection to the fans and media. #independentthinkers.”
