When we talk about promising players that could become “something” in World football we can surely use the name of Andre Silva. The 22-year-old Portuguese already has some highlights in his career, like representing his country alongside his hero Cristiano Ronaldo and playing for one of the top Italian teams, Milan, at such a young age.
The youngster caught the eye of some of Europes top clubs in a time of a financial crisis at Porto, who undoubtedly took the lead in his decision to accept Milan’s offer and get out of trouble as soon as possible.
But his stay in Italy turned to be the low-light of his career so far. He went from scoring 24 goals in 54 games in all competitions for Porto, on to scoring only 10 in 40 games for Milan. After a frustrating first season for The Rossoneri, where he didn’t get Gennaro Gatusso’s trust and rarely was among the starting XI, he seemed quite lost and that immediately became evident on the pitch. The talented player everybody was talking about became insecure and couldn’t show a touch of his striking force.
It all ended up with him wanting to leave and which saw him head to Sevilla on loan – probably the best move for his unsteady career. And he definitely hasn’t taken it for granted. The low-spirited guy leaving San Siro with his head down became the phoenix rising from the dust and scoring a hat trick in his first competitive game for the Spanish side. And he didn’t stop there. He has already scored 7 goals in 10 games for Sevilla and is among the top scorers of La Liga. That’s how you prove the doubters wrong.
But let’s take a closer look at what has gone wrong at Milan and how he managed to fix it all at Sevilla:
Style of play
Silva is not the greatest player physically or technically, but he just has that football intelligence that every classic centre-forward should have. He is always where he has to be – in front of the goal seeking opportunities or creating some for his teammates. He is just a great team player, which could be seen by the connection with his teammates at Sevilla. They clicked straight away. He is not making a big deal of his goals – he just works hard and enjoys putting the needed work on the pitch. And most importantly he makes it look effortless.
Silva scored a brace against Real Madrid for the team to win 3-0 at home and this has definitely put him on the map in La Liga. He positions himself perfectly so he could get the most out of the situation, no matter if it will be a short pass, cross or shot and is making the best out of his loan spell so far.
