Manchester City have a number of remarkably strong footballers on their books.
Indeed, while Pep Guardiola’s side is largely built around technical brilliance from the likes of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku, City also have a number of real powerhouse players.
Rodri is one of the strongest players around, Kyle Walker is incredibly strong, albeit he’s not at City right now, while Erling Haaland’s strength is remarkable.
Speaking to Sports Direct, Bernardo Silva has been building his so-called ‘perfect footballer’ made up of a number of attributes, and he made an interesting claim when asked to name a player for strength.
Bernardo Silva picks Manuel Akanji as his strongest player
Bernardo Silva has played alongside some exceptionally strong players during his career.
Many of his Manchester City teammates are behemoths, while he’s worked alongside the likes of Joao Palhinha and Pepe for Portugal as well.
However, according to Silva, Manuel Akanji is actually the strongest player he’s ever seen.
The £15m man has been criticised at times this season, but, physically, there aren’t many players who can match up to the Swiss international.
“The strongest?” Silva was asked.
“That’s a difficult one, but I’m going with another teammate of mine, Akanji,” Silva said.
Bernardo Silva’s perfect player
Silva named Akanji as the strongest player he’s seen, and he made a number of other interesting claims involving Manchester City stars when building his perfect footballer.
Inevitably, Lionel Messi got a mention for his left foot, while Silva picked Kevin De Bruyne as the player with the sweetest right foot he’s ever seen.
In terms of pace, Silva picked Kyle Walker, while he chose Lyon legend, Juninho for his free-kick abilities.
| Attribute | Bernardo Silva’s perfect player |
| Left foot | Lionel Messi |
| Right foot | Kevin De Bruyne |
| Strength | Manuel Akanji |
| Speed | Kyle Walker |
| Skills | Ronaldinho |
| Free kicks | Juninho |
| Football IQ | Andres Iniesta |
Bernardo Silva certainly knows what he’s talking about when it comes to football, and if you combined all of those attributes into one footballer, you’d have perhaps the greatest player of all-time.
As for Akanji’s strength, the defender is perfectly capable of bullying any opponent physically, but after a few shaky performances as of late, he needs to work on the mental side of his game as well.
