Youthful Chelsea ready for Thiago Silva reunion at Club World Cup
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Fluminense's Thiago Santos and Thiago Silva celebrating after a 2-1 Club World Cup quarter-final win over Al-Hilal at Camping World Stadium, Orlando, on July 4.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – Chelsea’s young side are targeting a place in the final of the Club World Cup when they face a Fluminense side marshalled by former Blues defender Thiago Silva, who is still going strong at the age of 40.
Silva was already a veteran when he signed for Chelsea in 2020, before going on to have an impressive four-year stint at Stamford Bridge.
One of the finest centre-backs of his generation, the Brazilian arrived after eight years at Paris Saint-Germain and in his first season at Chelsea won the Champions League.
He played 155 games for the London club and left 12 months ago after helping oversee the development of some of the young talent now featuring regularly under Enzo Maresca.
“He’s a legend of football, a top player,” Marc Cucurella, a teammate of Silva’s for two years, told English media, adding that the two had exchanged messages about their July 8 reunion in the semi-finals in New Jersey.
“We have the opportunity to play against him again and hopefully, we can do good things, win this game and play in the final.”
Silva initially made his name at Brazilian side Fluminense, featuring in the team who reached the Copa Libertadores final in 2008, before losing to LDU Quito of Ecuador.
He returned there upon leaving Chelsea, once again pulling on the green, red and white of the Rio de Janeiro outfit, who won the Copa Libertadores in 2023.
The evergreen Brazilian was then reunited earlier in 2025 with Renato Gaucho, the coach in 2008 who is now in his sixth spell in charge.
An impressive run at the Club World Cup has seen Fluminense hold Borussia Dortmund in the group stage, eliminate Inter Milan in the last 16 and get the better of Saudi powerhouses Al-Hilal in the quarter-finals.
“If you had asked me beforehand if we would have got this far, I would have said we were a long way away from doing so,” Silva told broadcaster Dazn after the victory over Al-Hilal.
“We know the financial size of these teams, the difference is enormous, absurd. But often our collective, the family atmosphere that we have, gives us strength that you maybe don’t think you have.”
It is not just Silva raising the average age at Fluminense. There is also 44-year-old goalkeeper Fabio, wing-back Samuel Xavier at 35 and 37-year-old Argentinian forward German Cano.
“I have watched some games that they have played and you can see that they are very well-organised. They have some very good players. The manager is doing a fantastic job,” Maresca said as he prepares to face Brazilian opposition for the third time at the tournament.
They lost to Flamengo in the group stage but beat Palmeiras in the quarter-finals.
“The energy from Brazilian teams in this competition has been high – probably the reason why is because they are at the start of their season, while we have finished the season,” Maresca added.
Many of Maresca’s players may not have been sure what to make of Fifa’s new tournament, which came at the end of a campaign in which they finished fourth in the English Premier League and won the Europa Conference League.
But suddenly they stand one game from the final, in which they would face either Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain.
With Silva gone, Maresca has been working with a young squad at Chelsea and the average age of his starting line-up against Palmeiras on July 4 was just 24.
There are more young players coming in too, with 23-year-old Brazilian forward Joao Pedro, formerly of Fluminense, making his debut in the quarter-finals.
Brazil prodigy Estevao Willian, 18, will join from Palmeiras ahead of next season, and 20-year-old winger Jamie Gittens has just signed from Dortmund. AFP
