David Medina and Isaac Suárez at Marca dropped a major exclusive on Wednesday, when they revealed that Atlético de Madrid are in the race to sign departing Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva on a free transfer.
Silva is leaving Man City after nine seasons, across which he won six Premier League titles, three FA Cups and the UEFA Champions League among other honors. Several top teams will jostle to sign the 31-year-old playmaker, whose long-standing relationship with hyper-agent Jorge Mendes has
placed him in Atlético’s orbit before.
Atlético reportedly want Silva to “replace” Antoine Griezmann, both in terms of his leadership and in terms of ability. Diego Simeone spoke last week about finding players who could assume the responsibility and “weight” of leading the team. Bernardo — with 459 appearances, 76 goals and 77 assists across nearly a decade in England — is being viewed internally as someone who could fit the bill.
Silva this season scored a pair of goals with four assists over 37 appearances in the Premier League, where Man City will finish second. He helped City win the Carabao and FA Cups, though he played just a combined 418 minutes in those two competitions. He was sent off in the second leg of City’s aggregate loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League’s last 16.
Silva is a big name with a global reputation, which appeals to majority shareholders Apollo Sports Capital as they try to grow Atlético’s commercial appeal. He appeals to sporting director Mateu Alemany because he is available on a free transfer; he appeals to chief executive and minority shareholder Miguel Ángel Gil because he is a Gestifute client, and Jorge Mendes’ agency is about to put Wolves midfielder João Gomes at Atlético before the World Cup — where Silva will once again represent Portugal.
But Silva has played his best football already. He turns 32 on Aug. 10 and he made around €10 million net at City this season, a salary that might be average for the English giants but transferred to Atlético would be the highest salary for an outfield player at the club. In principle, the age-wage combination makes this transfer one to avoid.
However, if he’s willing to accept a lower pay packet, I don’t doubt that Cholo Simeone would love to get his hands on Bernardo — and Julián Alvarez might like to be his teammate again. Like Griezmann, Silva is a highly-intelligent and tactically versatile player who thrived in numerous positions under Pep Guardiola; the Catalan coach employed him as a deep-lying playmaker as well as more attacking roles over the years.
Marca claims that Chelsea, Juventus, FC Barcelona and AC Milan are the other teams in the hunt to sign Silva, who will play his final match for City on Sunday against Aston Villa in the Premier League.
