If aging like fine wine was a football example, Thiago Silva would be the poster boy for the cause. At 40, the Brazilian has achieved all there is but is still going strong at the club level. He might not be playing for the flashiest of clubs in Europe but has shown his class when his team needed a leader.
Thiago Silva delivered a defensive masterclass for Fluminense
Silva who has played for clubs like AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea is currently playing in the Brazilian league with Fluminense.
Fluminense had a match against Borussia Dortmund in the Club World Cup and played an important match to end the game with a draw. Silva won the Champions league with Chelsea in 2021. He has been one of the great Centre-backs of the game and has continued to influence young players to play the game gracefully and to play at a demanding position like Centre-back without being absolutely brute or a giant.
His stats from the game are as follows:
9 duels won
7 clearances
3 interceptions
8 aerial duels won
0 goals conceded
But it was not as easy a journey for him as it seems.
Flashback to the early 2000s. A young, skinny Thiago Silva was just breaking into football when he was struck down with what could have been a career-ending and life-threatening illness. Tuberculosis. Not something you expect to hear when talking about world-class centre-backs, right?
While playing in Russia with Dynamo Moscow, Silva began feeling sick. Not just “cold-weather, I-need-a-coat” sick. He was coughing non-stop, had trouble breathing, and was rapidly losing weight.
Doctors diagnosed him with TB, and it wasn’t the mild kind.
He was admitted to the hospital for treatment and isolation, where he spent six long months recovering. At one point, doctors even suggested surgery to remove part of his lung.
Most players would have hung up their boots right there. Some might have called it a day, settled for a quiet life, or maybe gone into coaching early. But Thiago Silva wasn’t done.
Composed, intelligent, unshakably calm under pressure
After fighting TB and winning, Silva returned to Brazil and joined Fluminense, where he slowly but surely started building the version of himself we now know. Composed, intelligent, unshakably calm under pressure. The illness may have taken time from his career, but it gave him a perspective that most footballers never get.
He went from TB ward to Champions League nights. From hospital isolation to international captaincy. And somewhere in between, he became the blueprint for every modern centre-back.
