Bernardo Silva linked with Benfica return – but is he a pawn in a larger game?

The Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has been linked with a return to childhood club Benfica.

João Noronha Lopes, a Portuguese businessman and candidate at Benfica’s forthcoming presidential elections, has made the signing of Bernardo, whose City contract expires next summer, a pillar of his campaign to replace Rui Costa.

Noronha Lopes, who is running under the slogan “Benfica acima de tudo” – “Benfica above all” – claims a deal has been prepared for Bernardo, who will be free to negotiate with foreign clubs from January.

“I confirm that there’s a contract waiting for Bernardo Silva,” Noronha Lopes told the Portuguese newspaper A Bola. “I really want to bring Bernardo in in January. He embodies everything I want for Benfica: identity, a winning culture, and he’s a huge Benfica fan.”

‘One of the biggest honours of my career’

Bernardo has played 269 games for City since his £43.6m arrival from Monaco in the summer of 2017, scoring 43 goals. The glittering array of honours won by the 31-year-old at the Etihad includes six Premier League titles and the Champions League, as part of the  treble-winning team of 2023.

Bernardo was also made club captain by Pep Guardiola this summer – the first time the City manager, who usually leaves the decision to his players, has personally appointed a skipper – and described the moment as “one of the biggest honours of my career”. At the time, he said he intended to honour the final year of his City contract. 

The Portugal international has frequently shown signs of being unsettled in recent years, however, and was the subject of a £59m bid from Paris Saint-Germain in 2022, having reportedly asked to leave City in each of the two previous summers. He has also been linked with Al Hilal and Barcelona, among others.

‘My dream as a child was always to play for the first team at Benfica’

Guardiola, who has spoken of Bernardo as a “special player in the locker room”, has long made it clear that any player unhappy at the Etihad is free to leave.

“If he stays it is perfect,” the Spaniard said of Bernardo around the time the player was linked with PSG. “If in the end he has to leave it is because football is like this, the clubs are in agreement and the player has desires. I would not stop the desire of people; when you are a football player, [the career] is so short.”

Bernardo, for his part, has never made any secret of his enduring allegiance to the Lisbon club at which he took his first significant steps in the game. 

“My dream from seven to 19 was always to play for the first team at Benfica,” he said two years after joining City. “When I arrived in the first team [in 2013], I started noticing they did not count on me and I was moved to left back.” 

A subsequent loan move to Monaco was made permanent in January 2015, but Bernardo has long harboured hopes of a return, which could come as early as January if Noronha Lopes has his way.

“I’ve never hidden that one day I want to go back, so of course I do,” Bernardo said two years ago. “Now, we’ll see over time what’s possible.”  

‘Is there really a contract in place?’

Amid the obvious emotional pull of a return home, however, the midfielder has also become part of a broader political game, with the legitimacy of Noronha Lopes’ pursuit of the player called into question by rival presidential candidate Cristóvão Carvalho.

“It is legitimate to demand a public clarification from Noronha Lopes,” said Carvalho, whose team have publicly mused that Noronha Lopes could be creating false expectations.

“Is there really a contract in place? If so, how does this plan fit within the rules of football and the ethics he claims to uphold?

“Benfica deserves respect. Pre-emptively using the name of a player like Bernardo Silva could divert attention from what should truly guide these elections: integrity, commitment, and unwavering defense of the club’s collective interests.”

The Benfica presidential elections will be held on 25 October.