Zlatan Ibrahimovic says £110,000-a-week Chelsea player is one of the best he ever played with
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has included Chelsea No.6 Thiago Silva in an XI of best teammates after retiring from football earlier this week.
The Swedish icon has now hung up his boots at the age of 41.
Throughout his career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic played alongside some of the greatest footballers in history, and there is a place for Chelsea’s Thiago Silva in his list of best teammates.
What’s the story?
Well, Ibrahimovic and Silva shared a pitch together on 195 occasions across spells at AC Milan and PSG, averaging an impressive 2.18 points per game.
Only one player has made more appearances alongside the Swede with 325 outings – Maxwell.
Ibrahimovic clearly enjoyed having Silva marshalling the defence while he focused on scoring goals, as he has now placed the Brazilian next to Alessandro Nesta in his XI of best teammates, which you can see below.
Ibrahimovic and Silva won the Serie A title together in the 2010/11 campaign – as well as the Supercoppa Italiana – before departing at the same time to join PSG in 2012.
The 41-year-old then won four Ligue 1 titles alongside the South American, as well as two Coupe de France successes, three Coupe de la Ligue victories and also three Trophée des Champions.
Ibrahimovic praise speaks volumes about Thiago Silva
Just look at the names Silva finds himself alongside in Ibrahimovic’s XI.
The likes of Lionel Messi, Pavel Nedved, Patrick Vieira, Xavi, Ronaldinho and Lillian Thuram will go down as some of the best footballers to ever play the sport, and it speaks volumes that the £110,000-a-week Chelsea man finds himself mentioned in the same breath.
Few people outside of Chelsea actually acknowledge just how good the 38-year-old is.
Once Silva eventually retires from football like Ibrahimovic, we believe he will start to finally gain the recognition he deserves from the footballing community.