It’s that time of year again, folks. No, not the time of tedious Christmas specials and grotesque amounts of overly rich food, it’s nearly transfer window opening time, the period in which the rumour mill goes bonkers and every player who has had a good half-season is now going to be signed for £500 million.
One of the players who has been rumoured as ‘set to be on the move’ of late is Andre Silva. Linked with both Liverpool and Arsenal, among others, Silva is a striker currently playing for FC Porto. At just 21 years of age, the Portuguese forward would fit the profile of both clubs’ recent investment, so the rumour at least kind of makes sense.
He grabbed headlines against Leicester in the Champions League recently, too, and his stats were pretty impressive…
Considering his career trajectory so far, and the fact that not many people from these shores will have ardently followed the Primeira Liga, Silva is a relatively unknown quantity for many. Fortuitously, we have compiled a little fact file on the striker and it reveals a few reasons why two such enormous clubs could be after him…
Free Shots!
Shooting for the sake of shooting isn’t a good thing, let’s just get that straight. So, you can interpret this stat in a number of ways, depending on your mindset.
Silva has averaged more shots-per-game than any other player in the Portuguese top flight to date this term, averaging 4.2-per-match. In fact, no other player has averaged higher than 3.3-per-match.
Either he shoots too much, he’s got a good amount of self-belief or Porto have been creating barrel loads of chances. Without other information, it’s not all that helpful, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Second top finisher
He may only be 21, but Andre Silva is the second top scorer in the Portuguese top flight. Having found the net ten times in 14 starts this season – including two goals last weekend and one on Thursday night vs. Maritimo – he is proving his ability at the top level.
For all the doubters of the quality in Portuguese football, prolific scoring of that calibre should not be ignored. Some moves may not have worked out, but for every failure, there has been a massive success.
Hat-trick hero
Having been a regular for the Portuguese national team throughout youth football, Silva made his debut for the European Champions’ senior team in September of this year. Early season form was rewarded with a place in the squad and he already has four goals to his name.
Three of which game in a thrashing of the Faroe Islands. An international hat-trick, that is. Okay, it is against the Faroe Islands, but it’s still a nice badge to have and a decent thing to stick on the CV.
International football has been a doddle for Silva, really, as he boasted prolific records at U-19 and U-20 levels too.
Turbulent development
Moving around as youth player is not uncommon. Andre Silva, however, seemed to try out a fair few clubs. Starting with Salgueiros, before spells at Boavista and Padroense followed, split by a brief return to Salgueiros.
Eventually, Silva ended up at Porto – whom he joined in 2011 – where he finished his development as a striker. He broke into the first-team for his debut late in 2015 having spent a couple of seasons playing for Porto B.
Way out
Andre Silva signed a new contract with Porto this year, but that isn’t necessarily bad news. As ever, signing a contract means that any buying club will just have to splash out a bit more cash.
In August of this year, Silva scribbled his name down to a five-year contract that puts his release clause up at €60m (£50.3m). So, should Arsenal or Liverpool fancy pursuing his signature, they know how much it’s going to cost them…
