BERNARDO SILVA BELIEVES Manchester City prodigy Phil Foden will rank among the world’s best midfielders within two years.
The homegrown 19-year-old has lived with big expectations since breaking into City’s first-team setup in the title-winning 2017-18 season.
Pep Guardiola used him 13 times in the Premier League last term and, in July, went so far as to describe Foden as the “most talented player” he has ever seen, ahead of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.
Likewise, Portugal international Silva is “very excited” about the youngster’s potential and expects him to make a rapid rise to the top of the game, so long as the pressure on his shoulders is carefully managed.
“I just think he’s six years younger than me, but he’s a huge, huge talent,” Silva told the BBC.
“If he keeps working as hard as he does every day, because he does work very hard, and if his mentality is good — and he has that — [then in] one, two years he will be one of the best midfielders in the world.
“To go from the second team of Manchester City to the first one, it is a huge step.
Me, I was from the second team at Benfica, to Monaco, then always growing, and then Manchester City.
“I don’t know what kind of pressure he has, but he enjoys playing football so much and he loves what he does.”
Foden, who is yet to win a senior England cap, made a 10-minute cameo off the bench in City’s season-opening 5-0 win at West Ham, the 19th Premier League appearance of his career.
Silva added: “He will be successful because when you have a good mentality like he has and when you are good, because he’s very good, it’s a matter of time.
Sometimes you need six more months, sometimes you need one more year, but sooner or later he will be one of the best.”
Next up for City is a huge home fixture against Tottenham, who also picked up a win in their opening fixture, beating newly promoted Aston Villa 3-1.
A trip to Bournemouth follows for Guardiola’s side eight days later and Foden will be hopeful he can play a part in both matches as he continues his development.
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6 goals from midfield in a relegated team is impressive. He needs to get back to Celtic and push for a starting place, tough competition there.
Good experience for him with the international set up though.
@Bert Carolan: we all know the track record on Irish players in Celtic think he’s far better to get out of there. As a player he seems to tick a lot of boxes as a solid midfielder so with a bit of luck he can make the step up at international level, attract a bit of interest and secure a transfer to a bigger club like Ogbene did.
@Aprior: The track record for Irish players might not be great at Celtic but a lot of Irish players go there, obviously there is going to be a lot of failures. You’re going to have a few Johnny Kenny’s for every Liam scales.
Utd and Pool combined have only Kelleher come through in last 10 years. Probably some Irish lads go to Celtic when they should go to a lower profile club.
@Aprior: He’ll surely get his chance preseason, best of luck to him anyway.
@Aprior: I disagree with this comment. Look at the season just had by Liam Scales and Adam Idah. I also hope Celtic fork out the required amount and sign Idah permanently or else he can return to Norwich reserves and you can continue your narrative about the Irish at Celtic. Nobody has the divine right to a jersey, that has to be earned. It also must be remembered that prior to this Lawal was seen as a defender, an average one it was a recent conversion at Fleetwood to his original position of CDM has brought the best out of him. A position both Celtic and Ireland need depth in.
Hopefully he gets a run out tomorrow night. A future star can play as a defender or a midfielder very comfortable on the ball. Best of luck Bosun.
Got to expect Jake O Brien to get a game or 2 he’s out in form Centre back we have