Bernardo Silva was named the eighth finest males’s participant of 2023 on the FIFA awards ceremony held in London earlier this 12 months, as voted for by gamers, coaches and journalists from world wide. Lionel Messi beat Erling Haaland for the highest prize.
Silva is respectful of the topic. “Recognition is all the time good,” he says Sky Sports activities. But it surely looks like there is a wholesome disregard for these particular person rewards and their place within the recreation lurking beneath the floor. It can quickly come to the fore.
“In my view, I give due significance to those awards,” he continues. “As a result of on the finish of the day, we play a group sport. These days, the person awards all the time go to the strikers as a result of they’ve the completion.
“However when you perceive the sport, the individual within the recreation, both the participant or the supervisor, you know the way necessary it’s to have a correct goalkeeper, a correct defender, a correct midfielder. and proper hitter. Not only a correct hitter.
“Strikers do not win titles on their very own. The bottom is defence. When you defend properly, you are going to assault higher. Once I take a look at the person awards and see that solely the fellows who rating objectives win awards, I believe it’s kind of like not represents our sport so properly.”
Remarkably, his Portugal teammate Pepe and his nationwide group boss Roberto Martinez did vote for Silva. “When individuals round you belief you day by day, depend on you and assume you may assist them win, that is a giant motivation to maintain going.”
Briefly, he’s a group participant in a group sport. “I all the time do my finest to assist my teammates and do what’s finest for the group,” he provides. “On the finish of the day, profitable the Champions League is so much higher than profitable the Ballon d’Or.” I would not change it. No probability.”
Euro 2024 is his subsequent aim. Silva remembers the whole lot about Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph. He needed to be on the heart of it. As a substitute, he watched as harm dominated him in a foreign country’s first main event success.
It should have been an incredible feeling? “It was a mixture of feelings. I used to be very dissatisfied earlier than the competitors as a result of I did not go as a result of I needed to participate in it. I went by way of all of the {qualifications}. It could have been my first huge event and I might have been there however I obtained injured.
“However then, in the long run, once they gained, I am Portuguese. Everybody was very comfortable, all my household, all my buddies, everybody. So it was a mixture of being dissatisfied that I wasn’t there, but in addition very comfortable as a result of it was our first main title within the nation.”
Eight years later, Silva will flip 30 in August. The intervening interval introduced glory. He has already lifted the Premier League trophy six instances with Manchester Metropolis. Final 12 months, he was ready so as to add the Champions League to his spectacular record of honors.
Now he is able to as soon as once more win the trophy that eluded him.
“The funniest factor about taking part in to your nation is that even my grandmother, who does not care about soccer, when Portugal performs, she likes to look at. When the nation performs, everybody watches. Even those that don’t love the game.”
Does he really feel that strain? “When you’re taking part in on the Euros, positively,” he says. “You symbolize your complete nation, your loved ones and buddies. We’re all human. You’ll really feel it extra. Enjoying for Portugal is all the time a bit totally different and particular.”
Silva seems in an Adidas photoshoot, the theme of which is strain and the battle towards it. He brazenly admits that soccer could be unforgiving. That demand to win is a continuing companion of the Manchester Metropolis participant and he feels it on the uncommon events once they fall quick.
“When you love the sport, you wish to do it properly. And while you wish to do one thing properly, you are feeling that accountability. That is why you are feeling the strain. In a method, this strain is an efficient factor. It is your thoughts and your physique telling you that you really want it.
“It is as much as you to attempt to management these feelings.”
When Silva scored a penalty towards Actual Madrid within the Champions League quarter-finals in April, he saved his cool and opted to enter the center. Goalkeeper Andrey Lunin stood nonetheless, deflecting the shot. Metropolis misplaced the shootout, relinquishing their crown.
Quickly he justified his resolution with a share recreation. In these necessary moments, goalkeepers are additionally nervous. It’s attribute of them to dive. On this event, it didn’t occur. “Not the whole lot is gorgeous and nice. Generally you undergo dangerous moments,” he says.
“I am not going to say I am not nervous. However I attempt to settle for it. That is the fact of the job. That is her half. The problem is to cope with these tough moments. Settle for it. settle for it and hold working, when you do, you may do it higher subsequent time.”
For Silva, perspective is necessary. “This can be a recreation. You do not die when you lose.’ He talks about the necessity to “play with a smile in your face” and attempt to hold that thought in tough moments. And there is all the time household life to assist him keep in mind.
“Once I come residence, it does not matter if I win, lose or draw, I all the time look ahead to seeing my daughter,” he says. “Residing with my daughter, my spouse and our two canines, it doesn’t matter what occurs, figuring out we will be a superb household, that is what retains me going.”
It was this measured method that helped make him such a preferred determine within the membership and the nation. Silva is not any flash, on or off the sector. “He does not have tattoos or a pleasant automobile,” says Pep Guardiola. He’s merely among the best gamers on this planet.
Silva is the one who knits the sport collectively, the one who makes runs off the ball, fills in the place he’s wanted. In a season that was, once more, praised by others, he created probably the most possibilities in open play for Metropolis as they retained the Premier League title.
There is a sense that he stays happiest out of the limelight, as if that have been his pure habitat, regardless of his extraordinary talents. However generally that is not doable, like when he gained Portugal’s 2019 Nations League Participant of the Match.
It hasn’t modified him as an individual, however it might have modified the best way different individuals behave round him – and his prolonged household again residence in Portugal. “The extra I win, the extra individuals speak to them, youngsters ask for movies or ask for my shirt.”
A part of the joys of watching Silva is that his personal infantile exuberance stays part of him. “On the road, at college with buddies or within the Benfica academy, I keep in mind simply having fun with having the ball round me. Doing what I like, particularly taking part in soccer. Pure pleasure.”
Has it modified? “It is extra like work,” he admits. However there’s a caveat. “And I nonetheless love my job. It is a dream come true.” And it isn’t scheduled to finish anytime quickly. “No method. I will play so long as I can. If I can not, I will cease.”
Earlier than that, there is a chance to qualify for the belated European Championship with Portugal. The group is powerful and Martinez has made a superb begin. “We benefit from the time we spend with him. The outcomes have been actually good. However now there’s a huge downside.”
What if the strain is on and Portugal want a penalty shootout to go forward, possibly even win? “I might take it. I hope I might kill. However I might take it, figuring out that it’s a huge accountability. I might take it, positively.” Every part the group wants.