Reported Arsenal and West Ham United target Andre Silva secured his place in Bundesliga folklore this weekend with his 27th goal of a stunning season for Eintracht Frankfurt.
With half an hour on the clock at the Veltins Arena on Saturday, the Portugal international equalled a record which had stood for nearly 50 years.
Only one player in Frankfurt’s history – the legendary Bernd Holzenbein – had scored 26 times in a single top-flight campaign for the Eagles. Until Silva cancelled out Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s early opener on the banks of the Ruhr of course.
Some 42 minutes later, the place in the Bundesliga history books was Silva’s and Silva’s alone.
His second of the game away – and his 27th of the season – means the former Porto wonderkid will leave the Commerzbank Arena as a living legend during the summer transfer window.
A departure certainly feels inevitable.
After all, while Silva was in irrepressible form once again at Schalke’s the Veltins Arena, the same cannot be said of his Frankfurt team-mates.
A run of three defeats in five games means Frankfurt – a top four side for most of 2021 – have dropped out of the Champions League places with just one matchday remaining.
Any hopes they had of keeping hold of their 27-goal top scorer might have already gone up in smoke. It’s not as if Silva is short of offers either.
It is no secret that West Ham are in the market for a prolific number nine and Silva, a man reborn after forgettable spells at AC Milan and Sevilla certainly fits the bill (Mail).
Arsenal, meanwhile, have allegedly identified a man so often labelled Cristiano Ronaldo’s heir apparent as the ideal successor for another ageing frontman – Alexandre Lacazette (Calciomercato).
“27 goals for Eintracht, that’s definitely something extraordinary,” Frankfurt coach Adi Hutter told BILD.
“A huge compliment to André and the team that this record was broken.”
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