Bernardo Silva comes across as a very nice lad.

After playing his first minutes in a Manchester City shirt, the Portuguese star has already conducted one post-match interview when he stops for three unfamiliar faces in the emptying corridors of the Laugardalsvollur Stadium to answer a volley of questions.

Moments earlier, Pep Guardiola had gushed over his first signing of the summer, thanking his bosses for giving him someone humble, intelligent and with a ferocious hunger for all things football.

The player is obviously happy to receive such praise - and reveal its origins growing up as a Benfica fan.

He speaks softly, earnestly and in perfect English - a skill picked up from studying in a British college in Lisbon from a young age and improved further (more importantly) when it was established that it was the only common language he shared with his French girlfriend.

“I am crazy about football," he said.

"When I am not playing or training, I watch football all the time.

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“It has been the same since I was four or five and a young boy growing up in Lisbon.

“I always went to games with my dad and my grandparents.

“If I wasn't there then I would watch on television.

“It has always been like that because I always love to learn from the best."

Talk of learning plays up to Bernardo's fresh-faced image.

He speaks of wanting to pick up tips from Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva - "not just in games, but also in the way they train" - and becoming a better player under the coaching staff.

At 22, the former Monaco star still has acres of room to grow at the heart of the youthful revolution Guardiola is bringing to the Etihad.

Yet it would be daft to write Silva off as a rookie as he arrives in the Premier League.

The posters up outside the Stade Louis II for City's Champions League knockout tie branding Silva vs Silva may well have had plenty to do with the fact the two players share a surname, but nobody raised an eyebrow at bracketing the playmakers together.

What's more, it was the younger man that won the battle as his vision and incision cut City open time after time across the two legs to ensure victory. When most were assuming City would go through

heading into the second game, Bernardo was calm as he explained on the eve of it why Monaco could progress.

It is that mentality as much as the love for football that convinced Guardiola to pay £43m for him - a fee that is currently perceived as very good value at a time when many other fees are being questioned.

For all his room for growth, the youngster already seems well clued up on the challenge he is taking on.

While he is not yet the finished article, his drive and ambition signal he is ready to make an immediate impact.

“I know how much football means in England. They love it.

"That's why it's great to be here.

“I am looking forward to play in the Premier League for one of the best teams in England and I will do my best to help the team achieve their goals.

“I tried to watch the game in the United States. I was on vacation, so I wasn't very concerned about football.

“But I saw the last two games against Real Madrid and Tottenham and they played very well.

“I hope we can now keep doing the same in the games that really matter.

“When you play at a club like Manchester City you have to try to win everything – but it is clear that the Champions League is very important.

“This club is an ambitious club. We want to win the Premier League and go as far as we can in the Champions League as well.

“All the players want to play on the big stages – and I am no exception."