André Silva got his loan move to Sevilla off to a sensational start with a hat-trick on his La Liga debut in a 4-1 victory against Rayo Vallecano in Madrid last night.
The Portuguese striker therefore needed just one league match in Spain to surpass the total number of goals (2) he scored for AC Milan in 24 Série A matches last season.
In doing so, Silva also became the first player to score a hat-trick on his La Liga debut in the 21st century.
One year ago, young Portuguese striker André Silva was riding the crest of a wave. Having established himself as Cristiano Ronaldo’s partner for the Seleção, the Porto man followed up a brilliant start to his career for the full national team with a big-money move to AC Milan.
In Italy, however, things went badly wrong for Silva. Unable to make himself a first-choice starter in a turbulent season for the Italian giants, either under coach Vincenzo Montella or his successor Gennaro Gattuso, Silva only showed brief flashes of the goal-scoring prowess he had produced for Porto and Portugal.
Silva was given most trust in the Europa League where he was a regular starter and returned a fine record of 6 goals in 10 matches in the competition, albeit mostly against substandard opposition. But in domestic football it was a different story, with Milan’s young homegrown striker Patrick Cutrone keeping Silva on the bench for most of the season.
International career suffers
So far had Silva’s stock fallen that he barely featured in Portugal’s World Cup campaign in Russia. He played one full match against Iran, and two substitute appearances totalling 26 minutes in the Seleção’s other three games at Russia 2018.
It was a far cry from the superb qualifying campaign for the national team when Silva shared 24 goals in 9 matches with Cristiano Ronaldo (Silva 9, Ronaldo 15) and also became the youngest ever Portugal player to score a hat-trick for the senior side when notching three against the Faroe Islands in only his second competitive start.
A loan move to Spain this summer was the solution chosen to kick-start his career and Silva could not have made a better start. Three well-executed poacher’s goals got Sevilla off to a flyer with a big away win in their first La Liga match. With the Andalusian side also playing Europa League football this season, Silva would appear to have the perfect platform to make good on his undoubted potential.
Although a highly encouraging performance, Silva is well aware that he will have to produce consistently over the season to get people again believing he can build a memorable career as Portugal’s Number Nine over the next decade – a position where the Seleção have traditionally struggled to produce top talents.
Silva turns 23 in November and judging by his post-match tweet, when he did not mention his hat-trick but instead talked about the importance of the team making a winning start, he seems fully focused on making up for lost time in 2018/19. Good news for Seleção fans.
Feliz por el primer partido y primera victoria con la camiseta del Sevilla pic.twitter.com/CfXH6YbWGh
— André Silva (@andrevsilva19) August 19, 2018
By Tom Kundert
