“The day I eventually leave…” – Bernardo Silva’s emotional message to Manchester City fans amid exit talk | OneFootball

Manchester City skipper Bernardo Silva has expressed how he feels like a Mancunian after spending the best years of his career at the Etihad Stadium.

The 31-year-old is approaching the end of his current contract at City and it is expected that he will leave the Blues at the end of his ninth season in England’s north-west.

Silva has been an astounding success since he joined forces with Pep Guardiola from AS Monaco for £43 million in 2017, winning six Premier League titles, a historic treble and the FIFA Club World Cup among 17 trophies in total at Manchester City so far.

However, as Manchester City fans mentally prepare themselves to see their club captain embark on a new chapter, Silva has sent an emotional message to the fanbase in an interview for the March issue of the club’s official magazine.

“Yeah, for someone that is not from Manchester, but stayed here now for nine years and also now feeling a little bit Mancunian, it makes me very proud,” the Portugal international said.

There is no indication as yet of formal contract renewal talks between Silva and executives at the Etihad Stadium – amidst a growing belief that this will be the final straw for the Manchester City captain in sky blue.

Silva added: “The day I eventually leave, I can assure you I will always support this club. I feel that I became a part of this club and also a fan of this football club, not just a player.

“So after these many years to be able to wear the armband it’s obviously a massive honour. I’ve spent, years and years of my life here, haven’t I?

“Nine years and this is the place where I started the relationship with my wife, this is the place where I had my first daughter, so it became a massive part of my life.

“And I think that even when I’m like 60 years old or something like that, I will always remember this city as a massive, massive, happy period of my life – and not just my life, but my wife’s life, my daughter’s life. She was born in Portugal, but when she was one month old, she came to Manchester. She’s growing up here.”

Guardiola will be desperate to keep hold of a player he has tagged as one of the finest he has ever had the pleasure to train and worth with, having reaped the rewards of Silva’s heroics on the pitch for nearly a decade.

Manchester City fans will retain a glimmer of hope that a successful finish to the 2025-26 campaign could tempt Silva to put pen to paper and commit his future to the Blues, who are undergoing a rebuild to dominate English and European football in the years to come.