Maldini Inspires Me To Keep Playing – Thiago Silva

Chelsea defender, Thiago Silva has come out to say that he dreams of going back to ex-club, Fluminense before retiring. He recently revealed that even if the future will eventually decide itself, returning to Fluminense is definitely part of his plans.

According to him, like the legendary Maldini, he also wants to play to keep playing on his way to 40, and he intends to keep improving as he nears retirement.

He added that football is his life, and he’ll do all he can to keep his career going till he can no longer continue.

His words, “If I told you that I don’t think about it, I’d be lying to you,”

“It’s something that I think about, I already talked a few times with my wife. When you have a long career in Europe, your children grow up in Europe, this decision is difficult.

“Maybe you leave your family, your children studying in Europe and go to Brazil anyway. If I’m not mistaken, Julio Cesar did this recently at Flamengo before ending his career.

“I do have this dream of returning to wear the shirt of Fluminense, everyone knows my desire. But it’s something I prefer to leave in the future to see how things are going to happen.

“It’s a difficult decision to be made, but I’m really thinking with great affection and suddenly I have this Libertadores mission again.”

On how Maldini inspires him, “Those last six months of his career were the six months when I had arrived at Milan and couldn’t play,”

“[Carlo] Ancelotti took me to all the games. Of course he asked me to watch the team, but specifically to watch what Maldini did on and off the pitch. He was 41 already.”

“I tried to observe not only in the games, but in the moments during the week, in his preparation, what he did, what he tried to do to keep improving, because people who play at a high level are always wanting to improve and playing as better as possible.”

“And he trained like none of the young players did. So I have him as an example not only on the pitch on matchdays but also on the outside.

“I identified a lot with Paulo and in this little interaction that I had with him, I could see that suddenly I was preparing well and could reach 40 years of age playing wherever I wanted, you know.

“And Paulo, for sure, he’s certainly somebody that I greatly admired, a mirror so that I can reach these 40 years, which is the age I have in my head that maybe I could end my career.”