Developing a football genius: a biographical case-study of Bernardo Silva

Genius is often used in football to distinguish its most creative stars such as Bernardo Silva. However, there are few in-depth studies of these world-class performers or their creativity development journeys. The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of sporting creativity at its highest level through a biographical case-study of Bernardo Silva’s developmental path. Data were generated through interviews with Bernardo Silva and six participants he identified who could provide authentic accounts of his career as well as secondary sources. Etic and emic analysis of the data drawing on Lene Tanggaard’s situated model of creative learning resulted in the development of three themes: ‘Others’ are integral for immersion; Stimulating curiosity within and beyond football is critical to cultivate creativity; Resistance as stimulus for creativity comes in differing forms. Our findings support suggestions that creativity in sport should be conceptualized as situated, distributed, and relational.