Juventus join hunt for Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva

Juventus are considering a move for Bernardo Silva next summer, according to reports in Italy. 

The 31-year-old Portugal international is widely expected to leave Manchester City when his contract expires next summer, by which time he will have been at the club for almost a decade. 

Bernardo has frequently appeared unsettled in recent years, and City manager Pep Guardiola admitted ahead of this season that he was unsure whether the midfielder would remain at the club beyond the end of the summer transfer window. 

Bernardo not only stayed, but has since gone on to feature in each of City’s opening four Premier League games, starting three of them. His future nonetheless remains the subject of speculation, with Juventus the latest club to be credited with an interest after noting the success of other high-profile foreign imports in Serie A.

How Modric and De Bruyne may have paved the way for Bernardo

Luka Modric has impressed since joining AC Milan from Real Madrid this summer, with his first three games marked by an assist against Lecce and a decisive goal against Bologna, the latter of which came just days after his 40th birthday. Kevin De Bruyne, 34, has likewise caught the eye at league champions Napoli, scoring twice in three games since his arrival from Manchester City in June.

Those precedents have established a template that Juventus appear eager to emulate, particularly given that Bernardo is younger than both Modric and De Bruyne.

Yet the Turin club are likely to face stern competition for the Portuguese playmaker, who has been strongly linked with a return to former club Benfica.

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

“I confirm that there’s a contract waiting for Bernardo Silva,” Noronha Lopes recently 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.”

Links to Benfica

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

Bernardo 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 since been linked with Al Hilal and Barcelona, but his enduring allegiance to Benfica, where he took his first significant steps in the game, may yet prove the decisive factor in his future plans.

“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 it would appear Bernardo’s affinity to his childhood club remains unshaken. The prospect of a return will hinge on José Mourinho, however, who was appointed manager on Thursday morning following the sacking of Bruno Lage earlier this week.