After City exit, Bernardo Silva hits out at Benfica: When they err... | OneFootball

He does not hide the strong connection he has with Benfica. However, the Portugal international, who recently said goodbye to Manchester City, also has no problem criticizing the Club of Light. In a recent interview, the midfielder said the Eagles “made a mistake” with his generation of young players developed at Seixal.

“Speaking specifically about Benfica, Benfica’s academy went through a difficult period for many years in which it was unable to produce players. And I think a distrust of Benfica’s academy was created over many years, during which academy players didn’t work out, weren’t good enough,” the Portugal international began by saying in an interview with DAZN.

“And then, when they make the mistake of letting our whole generation leave, and that generation then goes on to be very successful, I think it was a wake-up call: ‘Hold on, maybe Benfica’s academy is actually good enough after all.’ And I think the generation after ours was already taken advantage of, when we look, for example, at [João] Félix, Renato [Sanches], Gonçalo Guedes—those are just a few examples, and there were more, and later on even more came through. We see that maybe our generation helped a bit to wake people up again,” he pointed out.

“Sporting not so much, because Sporting always managed to bring players through and always managed to develop them. Porto not as often as Sporting, but also. But Benfica especially, to say: Hold on, maybe the academy player gives us another way of finding success in Benfica’s first team, and I think that was good,” added the 31-year-old midfielder.

“I was very lucky with my generation. We had a lot of people who became very successful, at different levels, but who were very successful. Looking from Cancelo, who is my age and with whom I spent seven years at Benfica, to other teammates, such as Fábio Cardoso, who took a different path and then ended up going to Porto, or Bruno Varela, or even rivals like Bruno or Palhinha,” Bernardo Silva concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.