Juventus join hunt for Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva

Juventus are contemplating a transfer for Bernardo Silva subsequent summer time, in accordance with studies in Italy.

The 31-year-old Portugal worldwide is broadly anticipated to depart Manchester Metropolis when his contract expires subsequent summer time, by which period he may have been on the membership for nearly a decade.

Bernardo has often appeared unsettled lately, and Metropolis supervisor Pep Guardiola admitted forward of this season that he was not sure whether or not the midfielder would stay on the membership past the tip of the summer time switch window.

Bernardo not solely stayed, however has since gone on to characteristic in every of Metropolis’s opening 4 Premier League video games, beginning three of them. His future nonetheless stays the topic of hypothesis, with Juventus the most recent membership to be credited with an curiosity after noting the success of different high-profile overseas imports in Serie A.

How Modric and De Bruyne might have paved the way in which for Bernardo

Luka Modric has impressed since becoming a member of AC Milan from Actual Madrid this summer time, along with his first three video games marked by an help towards Lecce and a decisive objective towards Bologna, the latter of which got here simply days after his fortieth birthday. Kevin De Bruyne, 34, has likewise caught the attention at league champions Napoli, scoring twice in three video games since his arrival from Manchester Metropolis in June.

These precedents have established a template that Juventus seem desperate to emulate, notably provided that Bernardo is youthful than each Modric and De Bruyne.

But the Turin membership are more likely to face stern competitors for the Portuguese playmaker, who has been strongly linked with a return to former membership Benfica.

João Noronha Lopes, a candidate in Benfica’s forthcoming presidential elections, has made Bernardo’s signing a pillar of his marketing campaign, even claiming to have ready a contract for the participant.

“I affirm that there’s a contract ready for Bernardo Silva,” Noronha Lopes not too long ago advised the Portuguese newspaper A Bola. “I actually need to carry Bernardo in in January. He embodies every thing I would like for Benfica: id, a profitable tradition, and he’s an enormous Benfica fan.”

Hyperlinks to Benfica

Bernardo has performed 269 video games for Metropolis since his £43.6m arrival from Monaco in the summertime of 2017, scoring 43 targets. His glittering array of honours on the Etihad consists of six Premier League titles and the Champions League, as a part of the treble-winning workforce of 2023.

Bernardo has often proven indicators of being unsettled lately, nonetheless, and was the topic of a £59m bid from Paris Saint-Germain in 2022, having reportedly requested to depart Metropolis in every of the 2 earlier summers.

He has since been linked with Al Hilal and Barcelona, however his enduring allegiance to Benfica, the place he took his first important steps within the sport, might but show the decisive consider his future plans.

“My dream from seven to 19 was at all times to play for the primary workforce at Benfica,” he mentioned two years after becoming a member of Metropolis. “After I arrived within the first workforce [in 2013]I began noticing they didn’t rely on me and I used to be moved to left again.”

A subsequent mortgage transfer to Monaco was made everlasting in January 2015, however it might seem Bernardo’s affinity to his childhood membership stays unshaken. The prospect of a return will hinge on José Mourinho, nonetheless, who was appointed supervisor on Thursday morning following the sacking of Bruno Lage earlier this week.