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What Real Madrid are getting from Bernardo Silva – and how Jose Mourinho plans to use him

Silva joined Pep Guardiola-managed Manchester City from Monaco in summer 2017 Darren Staples/ AFP via Getty Images

By Sam LeeJune 23, 2026 7:00 am EDT Updated

It is somewhat ironic that Jose Mourinho has brought Bernardo Silva to Real Madrid for many of the same reasons that made Pep Guardiola love him so much.

In fact, “love” is the right word, with sources close to the man who is returning this summer for a second spell as Madrid boss using it when highlighting how the 63-year-old Portuguese had pushed for this signing.

Bernardo, who turns 32 in August, is leaving Manchester City as a free agent after nine seasons. He will walk into a Madrid dressing room that has endured a few ups and downs over the past year, and Mourinho places a huge value on the experience and winning mentality that his countryman accrued in Manchester.

This is not a signing that Madrid had been planning; it was Mourinho who suggested it and pushed for it, and the club backed him.

Off the pitch alone, Madrid are getting a huge asset. Sources around the City first team last season praised Bernardo’s mentality in training every single day, explaining that he always kept the level and intensity high. At one point, he did extra work with the club’s under-23s squad, despite being under no obligation to do so.

One quality that Guardiola really appreciates, according to those who have worked with him, is for a player to have ‘balls’. There are those who believe Bernardo may be the Catalan’s favourite player for exactly that reason (and this is a man who coached Lionel Messi).

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“I don’t forget Bernardo Silva; what he has done for us this season, especially this season,” Guardiola said last year. City were on a run of just 11 wins in 31 matches in the middle of the 2024-25 season, at a time when Bernardo was noticeably struggling to keep up with the pace of play. “I don’t forget. I don’t forget November, December, January, February, March, when we didn’t win one single game (obviously, that isn’t quite true), and he was there: Every single time.

“Running 30km (18.6 miles) every game, playing different positions, running, and there was a moment that he was empty, mentally. And after that, not winning games, he was tired, he was empty. But Bernardo, in the important games, has an incredibly huge personality. He’s a player that, for me, is on another level for many, many reasons.”

John Stones and Bernardo Silva bidding farewell to City fans in May (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

Bernardo’s performance levels that season were lower than ever, at a time when a City team lacking legs got exploited over and over again. Chasing opponents up and down the pitch without the ball is not his game, and it showed.

Mourinho plans to use Bernardo in several different positions, which is entirely sensible, and as long as he expects him to have the ball and use it well, there should not be too many issues.

Last season, Bernardo returned to his best and was City’s most influential player, on and off the pitch. That ballsy quality that Guardiola loves so much largely relates to his willingness to take charge of possession in the most difficult moments, to drop deep and collect it from his goalkeeper, even in hostile environments and high presses, to dribble it this way and that, until the right pass opens up, buying his team the time they need.

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Sources said Mourinho, Guardiola’s old rival from that first stint at Madrid when the Catalan was Barcelona coach, views Bernardo as a more attacking threat, either as a No 8, No 10 or on the right. At No 10, he would be a backup to first-choice Jude Bellingham, but it does appear to be considered a regular, viable option to use him there. Madrid’s need for a deep-lying metronome in the mould of Luka Modric or Toni Kroos from their recent past has been evident for a while, and it may be that Bernardo naturally finds a home in that kind of role.

He certainly played higher up the pitch for City in the past few years, but his real value to Guardiola’s team last season came deep in the engine room, alongside Rodri, helping keep control of the ball, and therefore matches, in a much-changed Premier League.

Guardiola’s style of football has become so common in the English top flight, and he had stayed for so long (10 years), that the revolution came before he had even left.

The proliferation of teams dominating possession and half-spaces led to managers and head coaches leaning into man-to-man marking involving physical, dynamic players. Long throw-ins were suddenly in vogue again, and corners became an ungodly tangle.

He adapted, to some extent, by integrating more physical, dynamic players into his team, but refused to let go of his core principles when it came to playing out from the back, and to do that — especially considering City had signed a goalkeeper and defenders who are not uber comfortable in possession — he had to lean on Rodri and Bernardo again and again.

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In one game, away to Leeds United, those two were positioned on the corners of the City six-yard box at goal kicks, rather than the centre-backs, and were charged with taking as many touches as necessary to play through the opposition press and quiet the Elland Road crowd.

Bernardo, in fact, became known as City’s problem solver; he would often abandon the position he was supposed to be in so he could be on hand if somebody in the back line needed help. A very obvious example of this came in January last year, when defender Abdukodir Khusanov was struggling badly in the first 20 minutes of his debut, and Bernardo dropped deep to offer the newcomer easy passes. But generally speaking, if anybody in a City shirt needed an out-ball, Bernardo would go to offer it.