The 30-year-old midfielder has been picked by manager Pep Guardiola to take the captain’s armband from Kyle Walker for the Sky Blues, and Silva has now gushed about his new position.

In a statement given to Manchester City’s official website, he said: “[Being named captain] It’s probably one of the biggest honours of my career.

“I’m going to start my ninth season at the club. And we went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well.

“All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys, but the leadership in the team, it’s not about one guy.

“It’s not about me and it’s not about the last captain or who was the captain two or three or four years ago.

“It’s about each one of ourselves being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room.

“So, in the same way that we helped a lot of the other guys, I’m counting on Ruben [Dias], Rodri, Erling [Haaland] and all the guys to help me.

“Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles.”

Silva added Manchester City’s 5-2 victory against Juventus in the FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday (26.06.25) proved the Citizens had what it takes to win the tournament, though stressed their Group G-topping performance was only one game.

He said: “We’ve always been potential winners in all competitions that we play.

“Obviously it’s just one game, but we’re happy that the performance was the way it was because it shows that we’re improving.

“We’re coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club and that’s good.

“That’s a good sign for the next season. Not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year, because what happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us.

“We want to change; we want to be better and today was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again.”