It’s no secret that Bernardo Silva’s adventure at Manchester City appears to be coming to an end as he reaches the end of his contract this summer. The former AS Monaco midfielder, a fixture in Pep Guardiola’s squad for years, has gradually lost his splendor and his influence in the cityzen game. It must be said that at 31 years old, Bernardo Silva is much less physically fresh and, in Guardiola’s game which requires constant activity, it is difficult to really influence the offensive game.
Because if the Portuguese, who recently became the most capped Portuguese player in the history of the Premier League, is regularly used by Pep Guardiola this season, his offensive statistics are very far from his best years in England. In the 44 matches he played, he was only decisive on 8 occasions with 3 small goals and 5 assists. So obviously, on the Manchester City side, we are already thinking about what comes next and how to replace the Portuguese international (107 caps, 14 goals).
Pep Guardiola is under the spell
In this sense, Sky Sports reveals this Tuesday that the management of the English club has already targeted his replacement, and he is in the Bundesliga. According to the English media, Pep Guardiola has made Algerian international Ibrahim Maza the club’s priority for this position. The young 20-year-old attacking midfielder has exploded this season for Germany and was one of the great satisfactions of Algeria at the last CAN 2025. There is competition in this file, but the Algerian is the priority of City, who obviously already has a head start.
Under contract until 2028, Ibrahim Maza (15 caps) has just had a successful season with Bayer Leverkusen, with 5 goals and 6 assists in 37 matches, establishing himself as a gem to follow very closely in Germany. Bought for 12 million euros less than a year ago by Bayer, he could already go for more than 40 million this summer. Sky Sports explains that City has a major advantage in this matter: its good relations with the agency which represents the player, since it also represents Omar Marmoush, who signed for City last winter. After Riyad Mahrez and Rayan Aït-Nouri, Pep Guardiola could well recover a new Algerian in his ranks.
