‘In my mind I will keep on playing until I’m 40’
Starting today at Wembley, Thiago Silva sees more success for Chelsea before he finishes his career back at Fluminense
Thiago Silva might not understand English well enough to know everything he is being asked, but he stares at me earnestly through eyes that look like they have seen it all before.
It is not particularly unsettling, but I become aware of my own body language, as well as the questions I am asking. It feels like a test to try to match his high standards – however impossible that might be.
Silva uses English for the only time during our half-hour interview to shoot back “no” in answer to an admittedly unremarkable question over whether he has any early memories of watching FA Cup finals on television as a boy in Brazil.
Fortunately, the answer is followed by a smile. But it is clear that Silva has no interest in going through the motions – one of the reasons he is such fascinating company, even through a translator. It also offers an insight into how his Chelsea team-mates might feel.
How, for instance, will he react to a question over his age? “I don’t feel old, I feel experienced as a footballer and experience is very important,” he says. “I’m making the most of my career at the moment.”
That is understandable, particularly given Silva’s brush with death after contracting tuberculosis while on loan at Dynamo Moscow in 2006. But, ahead of today’s FA Cup final against Liverpool, he is not treating each new opportunity as if it might be his last – even though he will celebrate his 38th birthday in September.
“Of course, I make sure that I prepare well, here at the club and also at home. Over the course of a career you are always going to have difficulties and I had them. There was the issue with the tuberculosis I suffered early in my career as well, so when you say I am nearly 38 years old, an issue with my lungs has complicated matters as well. But I’m just really happy to be at this age, to be playing football and still performing at a good level.”
There is the flicker of understanding at the mention of his former Milan team-mate Paulo Maldini, who played on until 41, and Silva is able to second-guess the question before it arrives back to him in Portuguese.
“I’m not sure about Maldini’s record, but in terms of my own record, I’ve already beaten it because I never thought I’d still be playing at the highest level at this age. So, I’ve already beaten my own expectations, and that’s what I will continue to do.
“It’s very difficult to talk about the future because you never know what’s going to happen, but in my mind I’m projecting myself to play until I’m 40. I don’t know if I’m going to get there, you never know with these things, but that’s what I’m preparing for in my mind.”
It was at Fluminense where Silva, who was born and grew up in Rio, was given a chance to restart his career following his near-death experience and the Brazilian club would represent the perfect ending for a player who has made over 700 career appearances.
“Fluminense is the club I would like to finish at,” says Silva without a moment’s hesitation. “It was the club where I played after I had my illness and it’s the club who opened the door for me after that stage and believed in me when nobody thought Thiago Silva would still make it as a player. As incredible as it may seem, it’s the club that I support as well.”
The contract extension he signed in January means Silva is committed to Chelsea until at least the end of next season and has provided some certainty at a time when supporters have been made to sweat over the future of the club and key players.
“To sign a new contract, for me, was the easiest decision to make. I feel very much at home here, my family are really happy here and, generally speaking, if things are going well off the pitch then they tend to go better on the pitch as well.”
Recent evidence would point to Thomas Tuchel’s team facing a battle just to continue to cling to the coat-tails of today’s opponents, Liverpool, and Manchester City next season. They have won just three of their past eight league matches, turning what should have been a procession into next season’s Champions League into something slightly more uncomfortable, although the midweek win over Leeds dispelled any lingering doubts. “I’m absolutely certain that we’ll be in the fight for the Premier League [next season],” Silva says. “This year has been a great learning curve for us, we’ve made lots of improvements and I believe in the group we have got here, I believe in the coaching staff and the project we are putting in place.
“Off the pitch, there’s been issues
at the club but I don’t think for one minute that’s been an issue for us on the pitch. If we’ve not achieved what we wanted to, it’s because the performances haven’t been at the level that we would have hoped.”
Before concentrating on the future, Silva has unfinished business to attend to in his latest Wembley final, having lost two – against Leicester City in last season’s FA Cup and Liverpool in this year’s Carabao Cup.
“Wembley is known around the world for being the home of the English football team – it has a status like the Stade de France and the Maracana. To return to Wembley and win a trophy would be another dream come true.”
Liverpool do, however, pose a major obstacle. Silva admits that meetings between the teams now deserve to be considered “a type of Clasico”, but suggests Liverpool’s strength lies in the collective rather than the individual: “The key is the team itself – it’s the squad, it’s the manager.”
When assessing what adding the FA Cup to the Super Cup and the Club World Cup would represent to Chelsea’s campaign as a whole, Silva returns to the theme of believing the club will be in a better position to challenge for the title next season.
“For us, it means a lot, the FA Cup final. It’s an incredibly important competition for us as players, we know what it means with its status here in England and, of course, we lost last year. So, it’s a competition we would absolutely love to win.
“People talk about what interests them and perhaps Chelsea at the moment, since we went out of the Champions League, we’re not the story [on the pitch]. But if you look at our season, the finals we’ve got to, the silverware we’ve picked up and being third in the league, I’d say we’re having a very good season. Not excellent, but we’re very proud of what we have done, particularly as we are only a year and a half into playing under our current manager.”