Earlier this yr, at a FIFA awards ceremony held in London, Bernardo Silva was ranked because the eighth greatest males’s participant of 2023, voted for by gamers, coaches and journalists from around the globe. Lionel Messi edged out Erling Haaland for the highest prize.
Silva is respectful when the topic comes up. “Recognition is always nice,” he tells Sky Sports activities. However one senses, beneath the floor, there’s a wholesome disregard for these particular person awards and their place within the recreation. It quickly involves the fore.
“In my opinion, I give the right amount of importance to these awards,” he continues. “Because, at the end of the day, we are playing a collective sport. Nowadays, the individual awards always go to the strikers because they have that last touch.
“However in the event you perceive the sport, an individual who’s inside the sport, both a participant or a supervisor, you understand how essential it’s to have a correct goalkeeper, a correct defender, a correct midfielder and a correct striker. Not only a correct striker.
“Strikers do not win you titles alone. The base comes from defence. If you defend well, you will attack better. When I look at individual awards and I see that only the guys who score goals win the awards I feel a bit like it does not represent our sport that well.”
Tellingly, his Portugal team-mate Pepe and his nationwide staff boss Roberto Martinez did solid a vote for Silva. “When the people around you on a daily basis trust you, count on you, and think you can help them win things, that is a big motivation to keep going.”
Briefly, he’s a staff participant in a staff sport. “I always do my best to support my team-mates and do what is best for the team,” he provides. “In the end, winning the Champions League is much better than winning a Ballon d’Or. I would not swap it. No chance.”
Euro 2024 is his subsequent goal. Silva remembers all the pieces about Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph. He ought to have been on the coronary heart of it. As a substitute, he was watching on, damage having robbed him of his half in his nation’s first main match success.
It will need to have been an odd feeling? “It was a mix of emotions. I was so frustrated before the competition for not going because I wanted to be a part of it. I did all the qualifying. It would have been my first big tournament and I would have been there but I got injured.
“However then, ultimately, once they gained it, I’m Portuguese. Everybody was so comfortable, all my household, all my buddies, everybody. So it was a mixture of frustration for not being there but additionally being very comfortable as a result of it was our first massive title as a rustic.”
Eight years on, Silva will turn 30 in August. The intervening period has brought glory. Six times now he has lifted the Premier League trophy with Manchester City. Last year, he was able to add the Champions League to his impressive list of honours.
Now he is ready for another tilt at the trophy that eluded him.
“The humorous factor about enjoying on your nation is that even my grandmother who doesn’t care about soccer, when Portugal play, she loves to observe it. When a rustic performs, all people watches. Even those that don’t like that particular sport.”
Does he feel that pressure? “Whenever you play in a Euros, undoubtedly,” he says. “You’re representing your entire nation, your loved ones and buddies. We’re all human. You’ll really feel it extra. Taking part in for Portugal is at all times a bit totally different and particular.”
Silva is speaking at an adidas photo shoot, the theme of which is pressure and coping with it. He freely admits that football can be relentless. That demand to win is a constant companion as a Manchester City player and he feels it on the rare occasions they fall short.
“For those who love the sport, you wish to do it properly. And if you wish to do one thing properly, you are feeling that duty. That’s the reason you are feeling stress. In a method, that stress is an effective factor. It’s your thoughts and your physique telling you that you really want this.
“It is up to you to try to control these emotions.”
When stepping as much as take a penalty in opposition to Actual Madrid within the quarter-final of the Champions League in April, Silva saved calm and opted to go down the center. The goalkeeper Andriy Lunin stood nonetheless, saving the shot. Metropolis misplaced the shootout, relinquishing their crown.
He quickly rationalised his choice as a share play. In these massive moments, goalkeepers are nervous too. They have an inclination to dive. On this event, it didn’t work out. “It is not all beautiful and nice. Sometimes you go through bad moments,” he says.
“I am not going to say I do not feel nervous. But I try to accept it. It is a reality of the job. It is part of it. The challenge is to deal with those difficult moments. Accept it. It is about accepting it and continuing to work. If you do that, you will do better next time.”
Perspective is essential for Silva. “It is a game. You are not going to die if you lose.” He talks of the necessity to “play with a smile on your face” and attempt to preserve maintain of this thought within the low moments. And there may be at all times household life to assist him to recollect.
“Going home, it does not matter if I win, lose or draw, seeing my daughter is something that I always look forward to,” he says. “Life with my daughter, my wife and our two dogs, whatever happens, knowing we will be a good family, it keeps me going.”
It’s the kind of level-headed strategy that has helped make him such a well-liked determine for membership and nation. Silva shouldn’t be flash, on the sphere or off it. “He does not have any tattoos or a nice car,” says Pep Guardiola. He’s simply among the finest gamers on the earth.
Bernardo Silva had the very best anticipated assists from open play of any Man Metropolis participant
Silva is the one who knits the play, the one who makes the off-the-ball runs, fills in the place he’s wanted. Throughout a season by which, once more, others took the plaudits, he created probably the most possibilities from open play for Metropolis as they retained the Premier League title.
There’s a sense that he stays at his happiest out of the highlight, as if that is his pure habitat, regardless of his extraordinary items. However generally that’s inconceivable, comparable to when he was the participant of the match in Portugal’s 2019 Nations League success.
That didn’t change him as an individual however maybe it did change how different individuals behave round him – and his prolonged household again house in Portugal. “The more I win, the more people are speaking to them, children asking for a video or asking for my shirt.”
A part of the joys of watching Silva is that his personal childlike exuberance stays a part of him. “On the street, in school with friends, or in Benfica’s academy, I remember just enjoying having the ball around me. Doing what I love, which is playing football. Pure joy.”
Has that modified? “It feels a bit more like a job,” he confesses. However there’s a caveat. “And I still love my job. It is a dream come true.” And there are not any plans for it to finish any time quickly. “No chance. I am going to play as much as I can. When I cannot, I will stop.”
Earlier than that, there is a chance to assert that overdue European Championship with Portugal. The squad is robust and Martinez has made an excellent begin. “We are enjoying the time with him. The results have been really good. But now the big challenge comes.”
And if the stress is on, and it required a penalty shootout for Portugal to progress, maybe even win it? “I would take it. Hopefully, I would score. But I would take it, knowing that it is a big responsibility. I would take it, definitely.” Regardless of the staff wants.
