When Manchester City won the Premier League last season, captain Vincent Kompany called up Phil Foden and told him to come to the pub.
It turned out to be a big night in Hale, but while Kompany and John Stones sang and danced with supporters, Foden was sitting in the dark by a lake in Stoke on Trent.
'I went night fishing with my dad instead,' Foden tells Sportsmail this week. I just felt too young to party. I was 17. So I thought it was the most sensible thing to do and Vinny actually said it was the right call.
Phil Foden is in line for another league winners' medal if Manchester City beat Brighton
The 18-year-old has made 13 Premier League appearances under Pep Guardiola this year
It was night fishing. So we were there until the morning.
'Funnily enough we didn't talk much about the football, we just chatted about normal dad and son stuff. He is a United fan. He is finding it difficult this year…'
Win at Brighton on Sunday and Pep Guardiola's City will be champions again and Foden is in line for another medal. He was given one last year after making five appearances.
This season the number has jumped to 13 and resembles the steady progress promised him by his manager when he spoke to Foden last summer.
On Monday, Foden started against Leicester but was actually sitting on the bench when Kompany struck the remarkable long-range goal that gave City victory. Turns out it was perhaps not the fluke everybody presumed.
'It's funny because recently we have been doing a bit of shooting at the end of training and Vinny has suddenly decided to join in,' Foden smiles.
It resembles the steady progress promised him by his manager when he spoke to Foden
When City won the Premier League title last year Foden went night fishing with his dad
'He has got a bit, to be fair. He can hit "top bins" a few times so maybe that practice came in to play. It was made for him to score wasn't it? He is always there in the big moments showing his class.
'I saw the ball hit the top of the net. I was like, "Wow, did I just dream that?"
'It was such a special goal and the most important of the year.'
Twenty-four hours later Foden was at the home he shares with parents Phil and Clare, girlfriend Rebecca Cooke and their baby son Ronnie, who was born in January, watching title rivals Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-0 in the Champions League.
In a rather modern manner, Phil Snr and Jnr sat side by side in the kitchen watching on their mobile phones. 'It was brilliant what they did,' says the City midfielder. 'It got me out of my seat as a fan.
'To do what they did without two key players just shows their heart and determination and shows how well we have done to be above a team as good as that. Our squad is obviously very special.
'We could have beaten them at Anfield and it would have been a different story now.
'There may have been some breathing space! But we know we can go to Brighton on Sunday and put a job in. We can beat anybody on our day.'
Foden has been kept largely hidden from the media during his emergence from City's system
It is a wet and miserable Manchester afternoon and the player many have labelled as the future of English football is in a glorified warehouse near the M60 doing energetic keep-ups with some friends and a chap about to interview him for television.
Foden, dressed in a tracksuit and here on a day off, is slim and angular. He is good, but he is not flash and it seems deliberate. Unless you were watching really closely it wouldn't be immediately apparent who the one with all the talent was.
Still only 18, Foden has been kept largely hidden from the media during his emergence from the City system. Aware of the persistent narrative about his number of playing minutes at a time when other young English players are considering moves abroad, Guardiola hasn't wanted him vulnerable to all the fuss.
Now that he is a regular in City's Premier League squad, we are gradually being allowed to see a little more of him. This is his first proper chat with a national newspaper and it has been arranged as part of the launch of the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series on the Nicktoons TV channel.
Advised in advance that Foden is a 'bit shy', it transpires he isn't. He is reserved, which is different. Wandering around Manchester, he is still surprised when people ask him for a photograph and admits he is working on his mental image of himself.
Foden is still surprised when people ask him for a photograph as he wanders around the city
Foden pictured alongside Guardiola and his baby son Ronnie, who was born in January
'I wake up every morning and think my career is just going so fast,' he says, cradling a mug of tea. 'I am still young and trying to act normal but I think I need to start growing up.
'I go and play with David (Silva) and Kevin (De Bruyne) every day but still feel like a fan if you know what I mean?
'I feel like asking them to sign something for me but I am actually playing with them.
'I don't mean I don't want to stay normal because I do. But sometimes I get up in the morning and just think, "Wow".'
On the pitch, the necessary mental shift has already taken place. After his two goals helped City win at Newport in the FA Cup, players from the Welsh club told him they had rarely observed such precocious talent.
'They wished me luck with my career,' he reveals. 'They were a great bunch of lads and it made me feel good.'
Physically he has some
