André Silva working to hit the ground running in pre-season | OneFootball

Officially announced on the 12th of this month as an FC Porto signing for 2026/27, André Silva accepted the Dragons’ challenge for a rather unusual kind of presentation. As part of Air Invictus, the air show sponsored by the club and held this weekend in Porto, the striker took to the skies for a ride full of acrobatics and speed. The gesture fits perfectly with one of André Silva’s immediate goals: to arrive at FC Porto’s pre-season… flying.

According to information reported today by newspaper Record, the striker is following a two-week holiday programme in which physical preparation plays a central role. In the week just ended, the Portugal international was in the Azores, using the Laranjeiras Sports Complex in Ponta Delgada, the usual home of Santa Clara’s under-23s, as his training base. This phase involved individual training, mainly focused on building physical rhythm. The pitch was used for running, almost always without the ball, while strengthening work was done in the gym.

With his strength levels and endurance capacity improving, André Silva will now enter the second week of a plan that should be split between Porto and the Algarve. But, as expected, it will not just be the training location that changes. The preparation will become more wide-ranging, with greater emphasis on field exercises and work with the ball, always complemented by gym sessions. This is a natural progression that will also be accompanied by an increase in frequency, in order to bring the physical demands closer to what will certainly be the daily routine when Francesco Farioli welcomes the squad on July 1 at Olival.

With the work done in advance, André Silva hopes to show his best attributes right away and thus make the best possible start to what is already a dream fulfilled: his return to FC Porto.

Monitoring and a new environment

Throughout the week, André Silva, who is working under the supervision of fitness coach Mário Simões, may also take part in a collective training programme with other professional players, similar to what João Costa and Alberto Costa, for example, have been doing in the Algarve. This training context brings the footballers closer to the pre-season environment and, above all, allows them to take part in collective drills which, naturally, are not possible in individual preparation.

A clear head three years later

André Silva will begin the 2026/27 pre-season with his future already settled and, therefore, with preparation as his sole focus. This is something rarely seen in the last few years of his career. After standing out for Eintracht Frankfurt in 2020/21, with 29 goals in 34 matches, the Portuguese forward moved to RB Leipzig in 2021/22 and spent two good seasons at the club in eastern Germany. However, in the summer of 2023, doubts arose over his future and the striker ended up being loaned to Spain’s Real Sociedad on August 2. The uncertainty returned in the following pre-season, but he ultimately began 2024/25 at RB Leipzig before leaving in January for Werder Bremen, again on loan. Last summer, the uncertainty surfaced once more and, between terminating his contract with his club and the various options on the table, he was only officially announced by Elche on August 18. Now, with a clear head thanks to FC Porto’s early official announcement, he will begin on July 1 focused solely on football matters.

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