Bernardo Silva to bid ‘farewell’ to Man City at end of 2025/26 season
Bernardo Silva will bid ‘farewell’ to Man City at the end of the 2025/26 season, originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as your preferred source by clicking here.
Bernardo Silva is set to leave Manchester City when his contract expires at the end of this season.
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The 31-year-old midfielder’s future has been the subject of sustained speculation in recent weeks, although that has done little to dampen his superb individual form.
After the disappointment of his red card in the Champions League last-16 defeat to Real Madrid, Silva led City to a 2-0 Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal last month – his first silverware as club captain – and also impressed in Saturday’s 4-0 demolition of Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Pep Guardiola was serving a sideline ban for the Liverpool match, meaning his assistant Pep Lijnders spoke at the post-match press conference. In light of recent reports of Silva leaving, Lijnders was asked about the hypothetical situation of trying to replace such an important player for the team. In his response, the Dutch coach basically revealed that we are no longer talking about what-ifs.
“It will be difficult because, as I said, [any] game when he’s not playing, you’ll see how much we miss him, and that’s a game. Imagine a season!” Lijnders said. “But every good story has an end, and I hope he enjoys the last months – there are only six weeks – and says a good goodbye. He deserves all this attention too. »
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The attention will place Silva among the club’s best bigs to end their City careers in the last decade. He deserves to be mentioned alongside Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne, having been an integral part of the vast majority of City’s successes under Guardiola since signing from Monaco for £43.5 million ($56.6 million) in May 2017.
Guardiola’s future remains somewhat uncertain beyond this season, although he has a contract until June 2027. After a 3-0 win over West Ham United in December, the Catalan described Silva as “my weakness, my favorite”, and not without reason.
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How will Man City replace Bernardo Silva?
Silva’s departure is not a shock in itself, although having the entertaining and gregarious Lijnders give the game away was obviously not part of the plan. When the playmaker was confirmed as City captain ahead of the expanded FIFA Club World Cup in June, he signaled he had already made a decision on his future plans.
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“I know what I’m going to do, but now is not the time to talk about it,” Silva said. “I’m very focused on my season. I’m very focused on doing well for Man City. When the time comes, I’ll talk about it. I have one year left on my contract, so obviously I can leave next season. This season will definitely be with Man City. I’m going to stay. I’ve had options in the past and this year, like last year and this year, my option is to stay at Man City.”
Whether that means a return to boyhood club Benfica, or a jaunt elsewhere in Europe, to MLS or the Saudi Pro League, Silva will certainly not be short of options. For City, how they explain Silva’s departure this summer is rather a head-scratcher.
“You never replace a player with a player of the same type, because they don’t exist. Bernardo Silva is unique. The way he controls matches, the way he moves, the way he receives, the way he leads, the way he sees solutions,” Lijnders said.
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“You’re never looking to replace one type of player. You’re looking for what’s needed to grow with the team and someone who can fit into the first XI. And then you hope, with our academy, with the young players we’ve already bought, that they can take that step into midfield as well.”
Nottingham Forest’s English midfielder Elliot Anderson has been reported as a City target in recent weeks, but it clearly won’t be as simple as him or someone else coming in to step into Silva’s place.
City’s redevelopment over the past three transfer windows means Guardiola already has plenty of attacking midfield options, some of which could be repurposed slightly. Tijjani Reijnders has shown more skill bursting into the opposition box than in any defensive role during a mixed first season in Manchester, but the Netherlands international certainly has the skills to play deeper. Over the first few months of this season, Phil Foden has taken on some of the other facilitation duties most associated with Silva and has performed superbly. A move to a deeper midfield role, emulating the switch his Portuguese teammate made at Manchester, could help revitalize Foden at an obviously delicate time in his career. When Silva leaves, he will be City’s longest-serving first-team player. Maybe that should be his responsibility.
Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovacic, the latter recently returned from a long-term injury, are other options to take over Bernardo’s duties, but both likely have decisions to make regarding their futures. Nico O’Reilly, on the other hand, is a key part of City’s plans for the next chapter. Once Josko Gvardiol returns to fitness, the England international could move more permanently from left-back to his natural midfield position. Although O’Reilly doesn’t resemble Silva stylistically, he can become a different type of focal point.
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The whole thing could be shaken up even more if Rodri batting his eyelashes at Real Madrid turns into something more substantial. Like Guardiola, the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner has a contract until June 2027, but it is not impossible that he, Guardiola and Silva could all leave City this summer. It would be truly seismic.
MORE:Bernardo Silva explains how Man City can ‘stay alive’ in Premier League title race
Bernardo Silva career at Man City, trophies won
Silva’s first year in Manchester was City’s record-breaking 2017/18 season, when they won the Premier League by 100 points. It was the first of six Premier League titles for the Portuguese midfielder.
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As they did last month, City also beat Arsenal in the 2018 Carabao Cup final. Silva has five winners’ medals from that competition, as well as two in the FA Cup. Their most recent triumph in the latter competition comes as part of City’s treble in 2022/23. After their victory in the 2023 UEFA Champions League final against Inter Milan, successes in the UEFA Super Cup and the former FIFA Club World Cup followed.
That’s 16 major accolades, with the possibility of getting one or two more before Silva says goodbye to a fan base that adores him.
He was immortalized in song to the tune of Abba’s ‘Voulez-Vous’ during City’s 2018/19 domestic treble-winning season, a chant that endures to this day. In it, he is described as “running down the wing”, but it’s been a long time since that was the remit of a scampering, scheming, screwed-up footballer.
Bernardo Silva
Why Bernardo Silva is Pep Guardiola’s favorite
Although teenager Kylian Mbappe had a standout night for Monaco at the Etihad Stadium in 2017, it was Silva’s performance in a thrilling Champions League last-16 encounter that stole the show. Guardiola’s head was turned and his former ally, then City director of football Txiki Begiristain, set about bringing Silva to Manchester three months later.
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Silva was initially a reliable player in the team as Raheem Sterling shone on the right wing and David Silva, De Bruyne and Gundogan handled central playing duties. It was during the 2018/19 season that he made himself indispensable. After the 2-0 Community Shield win over Chelsea at Wembley, Guardiola described his team selection dilemma as “Bernardo plus 10 more”. That equation has barely changed since then, although Silva’s role within the team has often changed.
De Bruyne endured an injury-plagued campaign during the domestic treble season, and Silva took his place alongside his namesake David as the team’s creative center. The 2-1 victory against Jurgen Klopp’s brilliant Liverpool side in January 2019 is often considered one of the greatest matches of the Guardiola era. Bernardo was the best player on the pitch in a victory that ultimately weighed heavily: City champion with 98 points, Liverpool vice-champion with 97.
When Sergio Agüero’s declining fitness and a few transfer market hiccups accelerated City’s ‘false nine’ era, the diminutive Silva was most naturally and technically suited to playing as a floating centre-forward, which he did brilliantly in a 2020 Carabao Cup semi-final win over Manchester United, when he silenced Old Trafford with a screaming strike. It was one of three goals he scored in away derbies, and Silva’s taste for the needle in such matches endeared him even more to City fans and irritated his opponents. “I didn’t like him before. Now I do,” laughed former Liverpool manager Lijnders at the weekend.
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Erling Haaland took City’s reality from the false nine to the real nine possible, and Silva played a crucial role when it came to making Guardiola’s new team work. He started the season triple in midfield and briefly played as an inverted left-back while Guardiola refined his tactical schemes for running. This featured Silva and Jack Grealish playing on the wings, allowing City to relentlessly stifle their opponents. Their peak came with a 4-0 evisceration of Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg. Fittingly, Silva scored both of his team’s goals in the first half.
After City’s fourth consecutive Premier League title in 2023/24, when Silva impressed in his new preferred position, shuttling alongside Rodri in central midfield, Guardiola and Begiristain made a mistake in letting a great team grow old together. When their 2024/25 season collapsed amid a winter injury crisis, Silva, De Bruyne and Gundogan were all portrayed in an unflattering light. But Silva stayed, as he did despite almost annual transfer speculation, to right the ship as captain. This leaves a young City team looking towards a bright future which they will soon face without their leader on the pitch.
“He has a special sense of competition, a sense of the game. Bernie has incredible qualities to stand out in bad times. That’s what defines him,” Guardiola said last December, when he confirmed Silva’s unofficial status as professor’s pet.
“There are players who can play everywhere, but there are few players who can play in the [Santiago] Bernabeu, Camp Nou, Milan, Liverpool… There are players born to play on the biggest stages, to play for life or death, and Bernie is one of them.
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“That’s why I think he’s the player who has played the most minutes with me here in this decade in Manchester. It’s because he’s reliable, he can play three, four, five positions. In that, Bernie is extraordinary.”
