Portugal have been longing for a striker to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, as the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner is reaching the latter stages of his career, and none of the touted strikers managed to spark as many hopes as Andre Silva did back in the 2016/17 season.
However, Andre Silva has endured a rough couple of seasons, leading to him reportedly being sold to AS Monaco from AC Milan for what is rumoured to be €40 million.
So what has Andre Silva done to justify that price tag?
Silva graduated from the famous Porto academy during the 2015/16 season, making his league debut in January 2016, and he went on to feature in a total of 14 games throughout the season in all competitions, scoring three goals in the process.
Up to that point, Silva was regarded as one of the best talents Portuguese football had produced in a while, and he went on to have an even better season in 2016/17, featuring in 44 games and scoring a whopping 21 goals in all competitions.
After this stellar season, Silva attracted plenty of interest from all around Europe, but he opted to join AC Milan, a club which he claimed to have been happy to join because of its "great history". However, during the 2017/18 season, he had a very mixed set of events. Whilst he was a constant fixture in UEFA Europa League matches, banging goals in all the time, scoring eight goals in 14 matches, he barely featured in the Serie A. In the league, he was restricted to the final minutes of matches, scoring just two goals in a total of 24 Serie A matches. Silva just couldn't lock down a place in the starting eleven under both Vincenzo Montella and Gennaro Gattuso.
Silva was clearly frustrated with the lack of playing time, and as a result, he went out on loan to Sevilla in the 2018/19 season. He had a pretty decent season over in La Liga, but it was nothing all too special by the standards that he was set to reach when he was younger, scoring nine goals in 27 La Liga games.
Sevilla refused to exercise the option to buy the Portuguese international for €38 million, and he went back to Milan, yet is now close to joining AS Monaco, illustrating his demise from the heights of being likened to Cristiano Ronaldo, to playing for a team that finished 17th in Ligue 1 last season.
On the other hand, his international career has gone down pretty well, as he has often put out great shifts when needed to, and he has scored a respectable 15 goals in 33 caps for Portugal, which is very impressive considering that he has often been used from off of the bench.
Now 23, can Andre Silva turn his club career back around, or is he set to become one of those players that is just made for the international scene? We will have to wait to find out.
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