Man City’s Bernardo Silva hails ‘honour’ to be made captain

ORLANDO — Bernardo Silva has said being named Manchester City captain is “one of the biggest honours” of his career.

Pep Guardiola decided to pick the captain himself for the first time after revealing there were things he “didn’t like” with the team’s leadership last season.

Silva was chosen to wear the armband and the Portugal international has spoken about the privilege of leading City.

“It’s probably one of the biggest honours of my career,” he said.

“I’m going to start my ninth season at the club. We went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well.

“All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys. But the leadership in a team, it’s not about one guy.

“It’s not about me, it’s not about the last captain or the captain two or three or four years ago. It’s about each one of us being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room.”

Silva has taken over as club captain from Kyle Walker, who left City to join Milan on loan in January.

Despite the Italian side deciding against making the deal permanent, Guardiola decided against including the England full-back in his squad for the Club World Cup.

The City boss has also named Rodri, Rúben Dias and Erling Haaland in the leadership team along with Silva, with the prospect of another name being added before the start of the Premier League campaign in August.

“I’m counting on Ruben, on Rodri, on Erling, on all the guys to help me,” Silva said.

“Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles.”