Adrien Silva

Early years

Silva was born in Angoulême, Poitou-Charentes, France, to a Portuguese father and a French mother. He began his football career at the age of 10 with FC Girondins de Bordeaux, but after one year there his father, who worked in aeronautics, returned to Portugal and the family settled in Arcos de Valdevez. Silva spent two seasons with local Associação Recreativa e Cultural de Paçô, who later began to host a tournament in his honour, the A.R.C.Paçô–Adrien Silva Tournament, held every June. Silva then spent six years in Sporting CP's academy, and won four national and three regional championships. At the age of 15 he was scouted by Chelsea, along with Portugal under-16 teammates Ricardo Fernandes and Fábio Ferreira, and the three players trained at the English club's facilities in January 2005. Sporting filed a complaint with FIFA that Chelsea had not followed the correct procedures, and Silva stayed with Sporting, although Fernandes and Ferreira did later move to the London club.

Sporting CP

In March 2007, Silva signed his first professional contract, agreeing to a five-year deal with Sporting. In July, after spending the final two months of the season playing with the reserve team, he was officially promoted to the main squad by manager Paulo Bento ahead of the upcoming campaign. He made his Primeira Liga debut on 17 August, taking the field as a late substitute in a 4–1 home win against Académica de Coimbra; on 12 December, after appearing as an…

Youth

Though born in France, Silva elected to play for Portugal, and represented the country at every youth level. With the under-16s he appeared at the Tournoi du Val-de-Marne, featuring in all three group stage matches – however, after he was found to have done unauthorised training with Chelsea, he was suspended by the Portuguese Football Federation. He played with the under-17 team as they attempted to qualify for the 2007 UEFA European Championship, being a regular as the side eventually fell short in the elite round. On 30 January 2007, the Portuguese Federation announced that Silva would be participating in the 2007 Meridian Cup (for under-18 players) as the country's only representative, and he declared that he was "very proud to represent Portugal in a European selection". However, prior to the start of the competition, he suffered an injury and was replaced by compatriot Romeu Ribeiro. Silva was limited to only seven appearances with the Portuguese under-19s, due to his increased involvement with Sporting's first team. He scored his first goal in the age group on 6 November 2007, in the first round of qualification for the 2008 European Championship against the Republic of Ireland; despite a 2–1 victory, Portugal failed to progress past the elite stages. On 5 February 2009, Silva earned his first call up to the under-21 team under coach Rui Caçador, for a friendly match with Switzerland that was played five days later. He started and played 78 minutes,…

Mainly a central midfielder, Silva was known for his dribbling and passing skills.

Club

As of match played 17 May 2024

International

Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Silva goal.