Chelsea defender Thiago Silva has admitted that he wants to replicate AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini by playing until the age of 41 as the Brazilian prepares for international duty with El Selecao.
Silva, 37, added another star performance to his ever-growing portfolio this term with his 'brick-wall' mentality shown in the most recent win in the FA Cup against Middlesbrough. However, despite being in this twilight years, Chelsea's No.6 has no time to rest on his laurels with Tite selecting the former Paris Saint-Germain defender to be part of his squad for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Bolivia.
The fact he is able to handle the burden at the latter stage of a star studded career justifies Marina Granovskaia's decision to renew his current deal by an extra year before the sanctions news rocked the club. The likes of Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta are currently unable to negotiate any new contract in west London due to Roman Abramovich's big asset being frozen amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
