Bernardo Silva may have only made three official appearances for Benfica, but he’s never hidden his story with the club.
The Manchester City player was just a kid when he joined the Eagles’ academy, and spent over ten years there before having a chance to play for the first team.
Now as newspaper A Bola interviewed the former Benfica coach João Tralhão, he was asked if he’s the one who ‘pushed’ Bernardo Silva to improve at the club in a difficult time he was having.
“No, the great impulse was made by him,” João Tralhão told A Bola. “Bernardo began training at Benfica at the age of nine, he made a highly praised course until he reached a level where other skills were needed. We know well, when we are wanting to implement an affirmation policy in academy football, that often some talents go through difficult times. That’s what happened with Bernardo. He went through a moment of his journey that made him grow because growth is not only made by praise. It’s also a tough time. And that resilience, when he got to the juniors, helped him realise what it was like to deal with frustration.”
“I’ll tell you a story of when he got to the juniors. We were playing for the national junior championship and he was from the U18s. He came to me, very embarrassed, and told me at the end of the training session at the Seixal number 1 pitch: ‘Mister, I would rather play for a year in a club that I might be an option, here I feel I will not be an option, maybe they don’t bet on me here at Benfica.’
“I said: ‘Oh Bernardo, let’s do this. You have six weeks to show that next year, with me, it will be you plus ten’. He looked at me very amazed. He’s a pretty smart player, you know him. He said to me: ‘Oh mister, don’t joke with me. I’m not kidding about my career, I want to be a football player’. I told him: ‘I’m telling you, we’re going to an international tournament with great U19 teams in Germany, you’re going to be U18. If you can settle in this tournament, you will demonstrate to me and to everyone, and especially to you, that you will be able to affirm yourself at Benfica.
“He took it very seriously, changed the course a lot in this conversation, started training in a different way to prepare for the tournament. During this period he was still used a few times in the final phase of the championship and, when he arrived at the tournament, he affirmed himself in a spectacular way. People were amazed, wondered how a boy of that size could be so influential in a team. He filled the pitch. We reached the semi-finals, he was the best player in the tournament. All the eyes of Europe, because there were many influential teams there, began to focus on him. At the end of the tournament, I said to him: ‘Do you remember what we said a few weeks ago? Next year you will be the team captain, number 10 and the most influential player.’
“And it was confirmed. I gave him the necessary confidence at the right time so that he could assert himself and I am proud of it. I thought he was going to be a football player and I also thank him for the way he trusted me. Today it’s a pride to watch him play at that level.”
Earlier this year, Bernardo Silva has even got himself in a social media spat when defending Benfica in a discussion with a Sporting director.
Ironically, Silva was part of a generation which wasn’t much used by the club, and ended up making a €15m move to Monaco in 2015.
Two years later, he joined Manchester City on a €50m deal. The Portuguese international has 17 goals and 28 assists in 87 appearances for the Premier League side so far.
