Bernardo Silva is almost certainly Manchester City’s most important player this season,
and he has multiple Player of the Month awards to prove that.
The Portuguese is one of the few players who has played almost every minute for Man
City this season. And with a manager like Pep Guardiola, you know what that means.
Silva is a really intelligent player. He’s a fine and effective dribbler, he’s pacy, and he has an
insane workrate. He may not always score, but the City man sure knows how to find the back of the
net when he wants to. But we think he prefers creating the goals to actually scoring them.
But hey, you know all these things about Bernardo Silva already, don’t you?
In this video, we will be bringing you 10 things about the City midfielder
that you probably never knew about. Let’s get right into it!
1. His nickname is Messizinho
If you have watched Bernardo Silva enough times, you must have noticed similarities
between his style of play and Lionel Messi’s. The Portuguese, like Messi,
is small and has a low center of gravity.
He’s also a left-footer like Messi and he dribbles and cuts in from the right,
and sometimes scores by bending the ball, just like Messi has done a lot of times in his career.
More so, he’s a good crosser of the ball and he sometimes falls back to the midfield
to create chances and dictate play, just like… yeah, you already know who.
So, all these similarities and more were what earned him the nickname, Messizinho,
which means Little Messi. It must be so nice to be playing with Cristiano Ronaldo
while being compared to Lionel Messi.
2. He is a diehard Benfica fan
Bernardo was born in and grew up in Lisbon, Portugal,
so it is actually no surprise that he is a big supporter of Benfica, a Lisbon club.
Silva loves Benfica so much that he has a tattoo of the club’s motto -- E pluribus unum -- on his
arm. His dream was to one day be a starter for the senior team and he worked hard towards it.
Even till now, as a Manchester City player, the little magician still has a soft spot for
his home club, S.L. Benfica, and still identifies as a supporter.
3. He was once a ball boy for Benfica
The global superstar you now know as Bernardo Silva
was once nothing but a ball boy for Benfica. You may even have seen him
if you were watching the UEFA Europa League in 2008, then referred to as the UEFA Cup.
He was the ball boy in a UEFA Cup game between Benfica and Napoli.
As a matter of fact, when Nuno Gomes, Benfica’s talisman at the time,
scored the late winner in that game, Bernardo went up to him and tapped him a couple of times.
Of course, it would be hard for you to remember that moment even if you watched the game.
Because who would have thought that that little boy would grow
up to be a Premier League winner and a Champions League finalist.
4. He was not allowed to fulfill his Benfica dream
Like we said earlier, it was Silva’s dream to be a starter for the Benfica senior team. However,
he was not able to fulfill that dream.
Bernardo worked so hard at the Benfica academy where he helped the team win multiple accolades.
Then he was promoted to the B team in 2013. And that season,
he was so important for the side that he was named Segunda Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year.
But in spite of all these amazing performances, the Portuguese winger was just not able to break
into the first team. Between 2013 and 2015, he played just one game for the Lisbon club.
But lucky for him, that one game was enough for former AS Monaco manager, Leonardo Jardim,
to notice him and snatch him up. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Silva’s case is one of the reasons the Benfica fans are pretty unhappy with Jorge Jesus,
the first team manager. They feel like he has not given enough opportunities to homegrown talent.
Anyway, who knows? Bernardo Silva may just decide to fulfill his dream and
sign for Benfica later in his career. Surely, with the City man having won
numerous trophies and established himself as one of the best players in the world,
Benfica will definitely not be rejecting him if he offers himself.
5. He speaks 4 languages fluently
Bernardo Silva is a very intelligent young man. And we don’t mean just intelligent with the ball,
he actually has a high IQ. Among other things he is really proficient at,
language is one that is very interesting.
This Portuguese young man who was born and raised in Lisbon, of course,
knows how to speak Portuguese. That one is no surprise at all.
But he also knows how to speak English fluently. And no, he didn’t just learn
when he was signed by Manchester City. He could speak English since he was a child.
And the English press have even said that his English is perfect.
His parents sent him to an English-speaking school in Lisbon when he was 6, so surely, that helped.
Bernardo Silva also speaks Spanish and French. This is surely an amazing feat.
But it seems nobody is beating Romelu Lukaku’s record in the world of football.
The Chelsea forward speaks 7 different languages fluently.
Wow! It would be nice to examine the Belgian’s brain and try to understand how it works.
But uhm, wait a minute, before we go any further. You seem like you are enjoying
this video. Please, go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.
Done? Now let’s get back to the video.
6. He has a unique training ritual
After training, Bernardo Silva loves to lie face-up on the grass with his
eyes closed and meditate for about an hour.
You can tell that the lad is not only interested in being physically fit,
but he also loves to stay mentally sharp and alert.
7. He is a fun guy
Bernardo Silva is skillful, intelligent, calm, but the little Portuguese midfielder also
knows how to light up a room. You can see that especially during the trophy parades with City.
And you know they have had a lot of those in recent years.
But Silva does not only know how to have fun with his teammates,
he also knows how to poke fun at opponents.
In the most recent Manchester derby, after Bernardo Silva had helped City to a victory
over their neighbors with his goal, he made a face at the fans. And if you remember, the
game was played at Old Trafford, a ground which is usually hostile for the “noisy neighbors''.
But while the United fans were jeering at the City players and vocalizing their displeasure
at their own players, Silva made a face at them while he walked off the pitch. As if to rub
salt on their injuries after scoring against them and totally outplaying them on their own turf.
8. He has always at the receiving end of pranks
The Manchester City players love playing friendly pranks on each other, and it appears that,
somehow, Bernardo Silva almost always ends up being on the receiving end of those pranks. Maybe
because he is a small guy or perhaps because he is such a calm guy who doesn’t get offended easily.
And most of the time, it is the Brazilian boys in the squad playing the pranks on Silva. Ederson,
Gabriel Jesus, and Fernandinho really enjoy having a go at the Portuguese. But as you can see in the
videos, he is always in high spirits and always has a smile on his face when he is being pranked.
9. He has a little dark side
Bernardo, for sure, is a very fun guy.
But he has been guilty of having perhaps a little too much fun before.
In 2019, Bernardo posted a photo on Twitter of his French teammate, Benjamin Mendy,
alongside a photo of the mascot of Conguitos, a Spanish confectionery brand.
The photos carried a caption “guess who”.
The post immediately evoked a strong reaction from Twitter users all over the world
who called the comparison he made in his post racist.
But according to his follow-up tweet, he was only trying to make a joke.
He tweeted “can’t even make a joke with a friend these days”
followed by a face-palm emoji. But well, maybe that joke was a little too expensive, Bernardo.
The Manchester City midfielder was banned for one game because of that tweet,
and was also asked to pay a fine of 50,000 pounds. Then he had to undergo and complete
a compulsory face-to-face educational course.
Perhaps the educating worked, because
since then, we haven’t seen any such insensitive jokes from Silva.
10. He nearly left Manchester City
Last year, Barcelona showed very keen interest in Bernardo Silva and were on the verge of
signing him, but somewhere along the line, the deal fell through. Things moved on from
there and Silva seemed happy at Manchester until after the Champions League final loss.
Rumors began to brew that the Portuguese was no longer happy in Pep’s team and he
was looking for a way out. At the time the 2021 summer transfer window opened,
it was nearly certain that Bernardo would be leaving City.
And it was made worse when the club went and splurged on English midfielder Jack Grealish,
while also keenly chasing Tottenham forward Harry Kane.
These, added to the fact that Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden were preferred to him on the
right wing last season, made him feel like he didn’t have a place in Pep’s plan anymore.
But well, fast forward to this season, and the Portuguese now seems happier than ever before.
He is pretty much undroppable by the manager and he keeps being
City’s most outstanding player game-in-game-out.
He even had a 100% passing accuracy in the Champions League game against PSG
where he helped Man City win the game and win the group.
It’s good to see the little magician is enjoying himself in Manchester again.
Well, there you have it. 10 things about Bernardo Silva you probably didn’t know. If you enjoyed
this video, please slap a like on it. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on the
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