World Cup stories: Thiago Silva and a triumph over tuberculosis | OneFootball

Many professional footballers must overcome great hardship en route to fame and glory but few have faced adversity quite like Brazil’s Thiago Silva.

The Paris Saint-Germain star will likely line up for his country at the third World Cup of his career this summer in Russia but were it not for his mother, his footballing journey might have been over before it had even really begun.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, the central defender began life as a defensive midfielder and underwent a number of unsuccessful, demoralising trials as a teenager with the likes of Fluminense, Madureira, Olaria, Flamengo and Botafogo before eventually joining Barcelona.

But it wasn’t the Catalan giants whom he would one day face in the Champions League that gave Silva his football baptism but Barcelona Esporte Clube – a far, far smaller club dwelling in the Brazilian lower leagues.

After a year at Barcelona he joined the now-defunct Brazilian Série C side RS Futebol Clube, before moving to Juventude in 2004 and, after being converted from a defensive midfielder to a central defender, the 20-year-old was named in the Série A Team of the Season that year – an accolade which ultimately earned him a move to Porto.

However, his stint in Portugal didn’t yield a single first-team opportunity and in July 2005 he was on the move again, this time to the alien-climes of Dynamo Moscow.

It was during his time in Russia that Silva faced the biggest battle of his career to date.

Shortly after his arrival in Moscow, Russian doctors diagnosed Silva’s persistent cough, fever and flu symptoms as far-developed tuberculosis and he was hospitalised for six months. Over time, his illness became worse and, speaking in 2011, the defender revealed that had he waited any longer before seeking medical attention, he may well have died.

“In 2005 I was sent out on loan to Dynamo Moscow, but the city was horrible, I was cold and got ill,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport magazine Sport Week.

“I was in hospital for six months. I was 10kg overweight and, despite everyone else in the hospital being so skinny and not wanting to eat, I was always hungry. My mother said I didn’t look ill, but I couldn’t move.

“The doctors would tell me to get up and go for a walk but I couldn’t do it. This disease is also contagious, so I was put in isolation, only able to play computer games and go on the internet.

“Every now and then a doctor would come in and give me an injection, three or four times a day, plus 10-15 pills.

“I eventually found out that I’d had tuberculosis for six months. The doctors said if another two weeks had passed, I might not have been able to recover. I almost died. This is why, whenever I play, I think back to those moments in Russia.”

The illness dealt a hammer blow to Silva, both physically and mentally, and it was during his recovery that he began to seriously question whether he wanted to continue his career as a footballer.

And it’s all thanks to his mother Angela – who revealed in an interview with Brazilian television network O’Globo in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup that she had considered having an abortion when she was pregnant with him – that he went on to be the player he is today.

“I had thought of quitting football altogether,” he revealed during his time at AC Milan.

“There was another occasion when I went to Flamengo for a trial and after two sessions they said I could go, as I was no better than any of the players they already had.

“I told my mother I didn’t want to play football anymore, as nobody wanted me. However, she said in that case I’d have to go work for my brother, so I immediately changed my mind and looked for another club.”

Silva signed for Fluminense in 2006 before moving to Milan in 2009 and then PSG in 2012. He has so far won 13 major trophies in three different countries, represented Brazil at two World Cups and two Olympic Games and captained the Verde-Amarela on a number of occasions.

But even if he manages to get his hands on the coveted World Cup trophy in Moscow this July, the biggest prize of his life has already been won.

“I transformed pessimism into challenge, and desperation into determination,” he said of his meeting with TB and compared with that, the challenge of delivering Brazil’s first World Cup for 16 years seems rather inconsequential.