Captain, left-back, legend: The story of Bernardo Silva’s magical nine years at Manchester City | OneFootball

When it was announced, seemingly out of nowhere, on 26 May 2017 that Bernardo Mota Veiga de Carvalho e Silva would be Manchester City’s first signing of that summer, fans began getting excited.

The Portuguese had toyed with his new employers for Monaco in both legs of a Champions League last-16 tie in February and March, helping the soon-to-be French champions dump Pep Guardiola’s side out of the competition in his first year at the Etihad Stadium and go on to reach the semi-finals.

Bernardo Silva had been mercurial in the first-leg in Manchester in particular – evading players with his dribbling, strutting around innocuously, and taking umbrage with a few heavy challenges, especially in one clash with John Stones which both players later identified as having been a dive on the smaller man’s part.

Sure, Manchester City fans thought, he might be a little lightweight and in need of toughing up to make it in the rough-and-tumble Premier League, but what team doesn’t fancy a luxury player who you can get hard workers to compensate for?

Nine years on, perceptions of Bernardo Silva couldn’t be more different.

For nearly a decade, the 31-year-old has run his English opponents ragged season after season, epitomising the relentless nature of Pep Guardiola’s teams and their success with his dogged spirit, occasionally rough tackling and above all unyielding will to win, win and win for City.

He’s combined grit with guile to become one of the biggest legends of this era in City’s history, and was rightly celebrated after his final game this month, departing alongside old foe turned close friend John Stones, and Pep Guardiola, who has connected with and trusted the little magician more than almost any player in his storied managerial career.

Run down the wing with Bernardo Silva one final time, reliving every step of a famous 13.7 kilometres, all those summers he put personal desire aside for the sake of the club, and all of the 20 trophies he lifted across nine of the best years of every City supporters’ footballing lives!

The pressure was on at Manchester City in 2017 after what had been an underwhelming first season under Pep Guardiola – helped in part by Bernardo Silva and his AS Monaco mates’ European exploits.

One of those fellow Ligue 1 champions joined the midfielder in being snapped up by City that summer, as Bernardo and Benjamin Mendy were part of a recruitment drive alongside Ederson, Kyle Walker and Danilo which spelled out to rivals that City were not willing to go trophyless again.

Even if opponents had heeded that warning, they’d have had little chance of stopping it. City bulldozed their way to the Premier League title and Carabao Cup, breaking a shedload of records and the 100-point barrier for the first time in league history.

Bernardo Silva made the most appearances in the squad with 53 to his name, but almost half of those were as a substitute; an attacking midfield of David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, and a forward line of Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane wasn’t exactly easy to break.

Usually brought on to use his impeccable natural skill and ability to control games to see out wins, arguably Bernardo Silva’s season highlight was to do just that in his first Manchester derby in December 2017. Leading 2-1, City – and Bernardo – delighted in repeatedly knocking the ball off of increasingly frustrated United players by the corner flag, running the clock down towards a victory which extended their already seismic lead at the top of the table.

The Benfica academy graduate’s big chance came at the start of the 2018/19 season. Kevin De Bruyne’s torn knee ligaments and a subsequent aggravation of the injury knocked the brilliant Belgian out of contention for most of the back half of 2018, and despite having utilised him mostly off the right wing in his first season, Guardiola decided on Bernardo as the midfield replacement.

Silva excelled, showing a whole new side to his game, as he was equally comfortable dictating the tempo of matches next to namesake David as he was leading the press, sticking a foot in and generally doing the hard yards not usually associated with a player of his build and technical proficiency.

That was never more evident than in the game still regarded by many as his finest in a Manchester City shirt, as Liverpool came to the Etihad Stadium in January 2019 with a seven-point lead over the Champions. Bernardo, selected ahead of the fit-again Kevin de Bruyne, was utterly immense, running a league-record 13.7 kilometres, recovering more balls than anyone else and setting up Sergio Aguero’s sensational opener as the Blues eventually triumphed 2-1.

Silva wasn’t done there, reverting to the right wing for the title run-in and playing a major role in firing City to 98 points as they pipped Liverpool to the league. The tension-busting opener in a key derby win at Old Trafford was a personal highlight, as was a brace of assists in the 6-0 demolition of Watford in the FA Cup final, helping the Blues to the domestic treble and Bernardo Silva himself to the club’s Player of the Year award.

The rivalry with Jurgen Klopp’s Reds was a defining feature of Bernardo’s City career, with the midfielder seemingly relishing the distaste between the clubs more than anybody else.

He urged ‘pathetic’ Liverpool supporters to ‘try to find a partner, drink a beer with a friend or read a book’ when they flooded his social media after their 2020 title win, decided to sip on a cup of tea instead of partaking in a guard of honour for their trip to the Etihad after having won the league that year, and left them with a parting gift as his goal kickstarted City’s comeback for his first-ever win at a full Anfield on his final trip there this season.

Bernardo Silva hadn’t been at his best as the Reds surged to behind-closed-glory after lockdown, but quickly put it behind him to help Manchester City regain the crown in 2020/21, as well as playing his part in the run to that year’s Champions League final.

After defeat to Chelsea in Porto, though, news sources revealed the Portuguese was one of a number of players eyeing up a summer move away from the Etihad Stadium.

In what would become nearly a yearly occurrence thereafter though, Bernardo was convinced to stick around, and was afforded a heroic reception in the first home game of the 2021/22 season.

Whether or not that spurred him on to greater heights is unclear, but he enjoyed one of his finest campaigns that year, again seeing City beat Liverpool to the title by a single point – tormenting the Reds once more with one of the Premier League’s great mazy dribbling runs in a 2-2 thriller at Anfield – and earning his second inclusion in the PFA Team of the Year.

Part of why Bernardo had never quite been able to prize himself away from the Etihad was his manager. Pep Guardiola said back in 2018 that as long as he was at Manchester City, Bernardo would be there with him (a promise he ended up keeping right to the end of his City career), such was his love for his No.20.

Players have joked that their relationship was like that of a teacher and his favourite student, and Guardiola even christened him with his nickname, Bernardiki, as he enthused over his performance in training.

The pair’s Champions League fortunes had scarcely improved since joining forces off the back of the 2017 Monaco debacle, with 2021’s final heartbreak only increased as collapse in the Bernabeu led to a semi-final defeat to Real Madrid the following year. Bernardo seemed to decide that, in 2023, he’d had enough of failure on the continent.

The midfielder only scored three Champions League goals in 2022/23, but they were certainly worth their weight in gold. An accurate header into the top corner was the middle goal in a 3-0 battering of Bayern Munich in the quarter-final first leg, with the job later done in Germany. Next up was a rematch with Madrid, a year on from devastation at the hands of Rodrygo.

Level at 1-1 going into the second leg, Bernardo sealed his City legacy beyond any doubt. He crashed in the opener at the near post of the previously-unbeatable Thibaut Courtois’ goal, celebrating with every ounce of passion Blues had come to expect from the little warrior. Despite his vertical challenges, he scored again with his head minutes later, sending the stadium into raptures and putting his side on course for an eventual 4-0 thumping.

Silva’s song, to the tune of ABBA’s Voulez-Vous, was amended to finish with the line ‘We’re all going Istanbul’ (it was first recited as ‘to Madrid’ in 2019, the year the Champions League final was held in the Spanish capital).

It was there, in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, that Manchester City finally claimed that elusive Champions League trophy, Rodri running onto the rebound of Bernardo’s cross to crash in the winner against Inter and fulfil the dreams of players, coaches and fans alike.

Ol’ Big Ears was, of course, part of a famous treble for City, and Bernardo Silva more than played his part in the rest of it too. By the time of the run-in he had locked down a spot on the right wing, but he had, in typical style, covered practically every blade of across across the whole campaign.

After Joao Cancelo’s conspicuous exit in the January transfer window, Guardiola had even tried Silva as his compatriot’s replacement at left-back, including in a must-win title showdown at Arsenal. Bernardo later revealed Guardiola had even considered playing him at centre-back, before deeming it an idea too crazy even for the two of them.

That Premier League title win was the club’s third in succession, with an unprecedented fourth in a row following in 2024. Bernardo has won six in total, going along with his five League Cups and three FA Cups to name just a few, making for a whole lot of celebrating – and, for the Portuguese, a whole lot of bullying.

The ‘little bro’ of the squad, it never seemed to matter the amount of transfer turnover or the personalities of the incoming players; year on year, Bernardo was lovingly picked on, tossed around, and manhandled by his City brothers.

Despite this, the 31-year-old remained a highly-respected teammate, and fulfilled Vincent Kompany’s prediction for him (the City great said in 2019 that Bernardo was ‘50% clown and 50% leader, and that once he became 25% clown and 75% leader, he would be captain’) by being named Manchester City skipper in 2025.

It followed on from what had been a down year for the club and player alike the previous season, but Pep Guardiola retained full faith in his favourite, eschewing the previously diplomatic process of selecting the captain and appointing Bernardo Silva personally.

Whilst he just missed out on lifting one final Premier League title in the closing weeks of the season – not for want of trying, having appeared in every league match this season – Silva still managed to seal himself a successful end to his career at the Etihad. He hoisted the League Cup in March and then invited friend, fellow City legend and the man after whom his dog is named, John Stones, to join him as they raised the FA Cup earlier this month.

John the dog has since been joined by another in the Silva household – named Charles, naturally – and Bernardo and his wife Ines (married in 2023) have a two-year-old daughter, with a son on the way.

Bernardo has made his life in Manchester over the last nine years, so despite all those summers of looking for moves away to sunnier climates closer to home in Lisbon, it’s clear that the city (and City itself) has left a profound mark on him.

And he’s certainly left a profound mark himself. No player has played more under Guardiola than his 460 matches – replacing the great Mike Summerbee as the eighth-most in club history this term – and he’s never made fewer than 45 appearances in a season for City. But he’s never let up, never tired, never stopped in his pursuit of glory. He’s missed a scarcely-believable eleven matches through injury over his nine years.

Perhaps only the fans can say they love Bernardo more than his departing boss does. One of the most regular sounds at the Etihad in these years has been of supporters singing about him running down the wing, making the blue boys sing, and now winning it all in Istanbul.

Rival fans are split over their feelings towards him. Some can’t abide the sneaky fouls, the relentless drive for more which could sometimes see him boil over towards opponents or referees, or that familiar feeling of seeing his little feet scamper towards a player, utterly hell-bent on winning the ball back and keeping it for his team.

Others respect him as one of the finest midfielders of this Premier League generation, a legendary competitor and a worthy adversary for any who truly wish to go down as great.

There is no doubt over how he will be remembered at Manchester City. A genius with the ball at his feet, a warrior who fought with the spirit of the most ardent fan without it, and a genuine great of the football club.

So the fans thank you so much for everything, Bernardiki, and hope you enjoy your time in the sun – but please, come back and see us in rainy Manchester soon.

Obrigado e adeus, lenda.