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Close all circles: Thiago Silva, 36, in the second consecutive Champions League final
When he started his European career in Porto at the age of 19, they did not count Thiago Silva and did not even notice that she had tuberculosis.
After 17 years, he returns to Dragao Stadium to try to win the most important title of his life, and has no intention of retiring
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Tiago Silva
Michael Yochin
Saturday, May 29, 2021, 12:00 p.m.
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Going back to where it all started.
Thiago Silva (Photo: Reuters)
Thiago Silva's European journey began in Porto in 2004, and the plot was grim. Georges Mendes, the agent who soared at breakneck speed in those days, operated an extensive network in Brazil, and scouts advised him to keep an eye on the young brake of the modest Juventus. The boy was told he would join the freshman Champions League holder, and his enthusiasm knew no bounds. When he arrived in Portugal, however, it turned out that the dragons were not building on him at all. Someone cut a nice coupon, but the brake was not intended for the first roster at all, and was sent to the reserve team in the second division. Even there he could barely see grass, and his mood was not bright.
In fact, Porto did not care so much about him that no one delved into his complaints of severe chest pains.
His teammates even joked that he had a longing for the homeland, and the issue was not addressed.
Several months later, when Mendes cracked a new project and sent a lot of players from the Portuguese league to the new owner of Dynamo Moscow, Thiago Silva was added to the list alongside much more familiar players like Constantinople and Manisha.
The deal was sloppy, and the Russian club did not even perform medical tests on its new players.
Here, too, someone rushed to cut a coupon.
And what could the boy who grew up in poverty in the pavilion of Rio de Janeiro have been able to do?
He traveled to Moscow with frequent coughs.
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In the beginning they did not count him.
Silva (Photo: Reuters)
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Half a year in a hospital in Moscow
Only then did Dynamo's doctors notice Tiago's precarious health.
The neglected disease turned out to be tuberculosis, and the brake was hospitalized in isolation in a special hospital.
"If you had come to us two weeks late, you would not have survived," they told him there, recommending that almost the entire right lung be excised.
Silva refused, even though he knew his life was really in danger.
For three months he was not allowed to meet his mother and his girlfriend Isabel who came to support him.
In fact, Isabel in general planned to break up with him, but gave up on the idea when she saw how serious the business was.
"I don't know what I would have done if she had also thrown me out," Silva later said.
They are still together as a happy family.
best derived from worse.
The Brazilian spent half a year in a Moscow hospital, ranging from utter despair to faint hope. He did not die, but his career as a footballer was a very big question mark. The doctors thought he had no chance. Even when he left Russia and went for treatments in Portugal, he was unable to perform walks for more than five minutes. The full recovery process took almost a year, and by the end he had already chosen to hang up his shoes - until his mother intervened and pushed him to continue.
The mother spurred the boy to pursue the dream even when he did not pass the tests at a number of academies, including Flamengo. "Be a truck driver like your brother," she told him - and that consideration was quite convincing. This time, too, she refused to allow Tiago to surrender to the circumstances, but even in his immediate surroundings no one imagined what a glorious career awaited him around the corner. Light material, no one thought that a tuberculosis patient who was left almost without a lung would be able to play at the highest world level by the age of 36, and his hand was tilted.
Thiago's mother refused to let him surrender.
Tiago in Paris Saint-Germain uniform (Photo: GettyImages)
PSG regretted it, but it was too late
Even now there were those who thought he had finished the horse.
Leonardo, who was the first coach of the brake in Milan in the 2009/10 season and greatly appreciated him, decided in his role as sporting director of Paris Saint-Germain in early 2020 that the veteran captain's contract would not be renewed.
Silva was updated on this in a phone call when he was in Brazil during the forced Corona break, and Leonardo only asked him to stay for the crucial stages of the Champions League in August before leaving.
Tiago agreed without issue.
He felt committed to the club and the fans, and more importantly - there was a real opportunity here to qualify for the Champions League final for the first time in his life.
and so it was.
The brake excelled in the dramatic quarter-final against Atalanta and in the semi-final against Leipzig, and also did a good job in the 1-0 loss in the final to Bayern Munich.
Ahead of the meeting with the Bavarians, Leonardo has already decided to make a U-turn due to very heavy pressure exerted on him by coach Thomas Tuchel.
The German demanded to keep the captain in Saint-Germain, and the sporting director gave up contrary to his original intention.
After the final whistle at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon, Silva was informed that Leonardo was asking to meet him and offer him a new contract.
It was too late.
"I have already given my word to Chelsea, and I will not break it," he declared.
Thiago Silva's role model.
Paolo Madellini (Photo: GettyImages, Ben Radford)
The role model - Maldini
"It is disappointing that I was judged on the basis of three games at the end of the Champions League after eight years at the club," said the Brazilian, who was later hurt to the core by the attitude. He expected a slightly different gesture, and did not understand why they did not even bother to arrange a farewell ceremony for him. He also really disagreed with the assessment that exhausted his powers, and told anyone who was willing to hear that he did not intend to retire by the age of at least 40? So when Chelsea offered him a new challenge, and Frank Lampard explained how important his contribution to the lineup would be, he did not think twice. The consent was given almost immediately, and London awaited him with open arms.
Why was age 40 set as a target?
Because in Milan Thiago Silva got to meet Paolo Maldini.
Although they were not together on the grass, because when he arrived in January 2009 the Brazilian was not yet allowed to play, while the legendary Italian retired that summer, but they trained together, and the impression was powerful.
"I saw him at his peak of fitness when he was 40, and I realized it was possible," he recalled.
Maldini, on the other hand, was very impressed by his young colleague.
"Thiago Silva is the only stopper who can dominate games and change them," he said as the Brazilian wore the red-and-black shirt.
And he did not want to leave San Siro after just three seasons, but the economic situation forced the club to sell him.
Leonardo was the man who absorbed him in Paris.
Fate has an excellent sense of humor.
Thiago Silva with Tuchel when the two were in Paris Saint-Germain (Photo: Reuters)
Tuchel joined the journey to the second final
So even now fate was amused. In August, Tuchel was left frustrated and resentful after management failed to keep Tiago. His relationship with Leonardo suffered another blow, and his term in the City of Lights came a huge step towards its end. It ended with a letter of dismissal in December, and as early as January the Stamford Bridge coach reunited with the brake he so admires. And maybe Silva really enjoys working with Lampard, and the two have exchanged countless mutual compliments in interviews, but with Tuchel he is even happier. He knows his methods better, and the array with three brakes fits him like a glove at this stage of his career. When placed in the center, as a kind of libro, the fact that it is not particularly fast at its advanced age is less important. Precisely the excellent game vision and the ability to build a game from behind are given greater expression.
And here you have it - Saint-Germain is far behind, but the two partners raced together to the Champions League final for the second time in a row.
After experiencing the class for the first time at the age of 35 and losing, Thiago Silva is eager to win the grand prize at the age of 36. If he does, he will be placed fourth in the rankings of the oldest players to win the Champions League, alongside Javier Santi and Marco Materazzi who celebrated with Inter in 2010.
Only Maldini (why not?), Pietro Virkobod and Billy Costacorta will be ahead of him.
And if he scores by chance, Thiago Silva will be equal to Maldini, who found the net in the final against Liverpool in 2005 at the age of 36 - he is currently the oldest conqueror in the history of the factory.
Eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup by Belgium, Thiago Silva wants to reward Kevin de Bruyne in the Champions League final (Photo: Reuters)
Did not go to Russia, will go to Porto?
That dramatic final took place in Istanbul, and that was the original location of the final this season, until Corona's considerations caused the UEFA to copy him to Porto. Chelsea and Manchester City fans were furious, and rightly so, at not moving the game to London, but for Thiago Silva. visit the stadium Drgao be particularly symbolic. it brought him there 17 years ago to join the Champions League holderin seemingly fresh. it ended very badly, but now has a chance to win the title of Team Fortress rather not told him and noticed that he had tuberculosis.
before For three years, Thiago Silva dreamed of winning the gold medal at the World Cup in Lužnice in Moscow, a city where he almost died in isolation in a hospital. Another time, will he take her - in Dragao, with Tuchel, against de Brauna, for a Russian-owned club?Some circles can be closed here!
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