Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that Bernardo Silva will never win the Ballon d’Or because “you have to be on social media” to win the award.
Last year’s title was won by Lionel Messi, despite Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski being the bookmakers’ favourite to win the award.
Up until this point in the ongoing season, there is a strong case to make for Bernardo Silva being one of, if not the best player in the world.
Silva has been back to his best this season, and while raw goals and assist stats may not reflect his full ability, he play’s with such an ease on the eye that it is impossible not to consider him one of the worlds best at the moment.
Guardiola believes the one thing stopping the 27-year-old Portuguese international from ever having a chance of winning football’s most coveted individual prize is his lack of presence on social media. He is on both Instagram and Twitter, with a combined 3.4 million followers.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Guardiola professed that in order to win the Ballon d’Or in the modern age, a player must be on social media.
“Bernardo Silva is never going to win the Ballon d’Or because you have to be on social media, you have to not just win but score a lot of goals and Bernardo does not have that quality,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“If one day it happens I’d love it, I’d be happy for him like any other player that we have here that one day would win the Ballon d’Or. I would be more than grateful to experience that award with him. For me, as a manager, he can do everything.”
These Guardiola’s comments were shared on Twitter by City Xtra and it attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.
“Pep is spot on here.”
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“True, people yesterday on Twitter were talking about Salah as the best player in the world, they forgot Bernardo and De Bruyne exist. But now it’s all about stats.”
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“If he played for certain club other than City and France national team, he would get hype from the media.”
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“He’s right to a degree. But if we win the champions league and he wins the world cup, he’ll have a great chance. But Mahrez, De Bruyne and Foden will probably be ahead of him in the pecking order because of stats”
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“Why are people overreacting? He’s said it exactly how it is. These days is mainly about stats bar Modric’s year.”
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“Pep is on fire the last days Lol”
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“Facts, one of the very best players in the world right now but we know how these things work.”
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