Bernardo Silva set to leave Man City at end of season

Bernardo Silva will leave Manchester City when his contract expires this summer, the club’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders confirmed.

The City club captain is out of contract at the end of the current season and in September, stated that he had already made his decision but declined to publicly reveal the answer.

The 31-year-old was handed the armband last summer after the exits of Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne, and has made a total of 450 City first-team appearances.

Lijnders, stepping in for the suspended Pep Guardiola for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final win over Liverpool, was asked whether it would take more than one player to replace such a versatile midfielder.

“You never replace a player with the same kind of player because they don’t exist,” said Lijnders of Silva, who joined City from Monaco in 2017.

“Bernardo is unique. The way he controls games, the way he moves, the way he receives, the way he leads, the way he sees the solutions. All these things.

“You never search for a replacement of one type of player. You search for what is needed to grow with the team and somebody who can fit in the first XI. And then you hope, with our academy, with the young players we already bought that they can make that step as well in the midfield positions.”

Silva made his 450th appearance for the club since joining in 2017 and could add another nine to that total.

“If you see our young boys in the academy, then they have to make that step and to grow,” said Ljinders.

“But the most important is that the seniors who stay for a long time, that they stay, that they stay, that they stay. That they are always there and, around that, you can move.

“But it will be hard because, as I said, in the game, when he is not playing you will see how he is missed and that’s one game. Imagine a season … but every good story comes to an end, and I hope he enjoys the last months — there are only six weeks — and has a good farewell. He deserves all that attention as well.”

Silva has won 19 trophies and counting across his nine seasons in Manchester, including six Premier League titles and the 2023 Champions League.