Former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva is stepping up his bid to become “a champion as a coach” by following Andre Villas-Boas’ recommendation to take his UEFA A Licence in Scotland.
While his Brazil colleagues gear up for the World Cup, 41-year-old Silva, who failed to make Carlo Ancelotti’s final squad for the showpiece in America, has spent the past fortnight at the Oriam facility in Edinburgh working towards his post-playing career.
Porto defender Silva, capped 113 times for his country, signed up for the Scottish Football Association’s UEFA A Licence coaching course, following the lead of luminaries like Villas-Boas, Sir Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson and Marcello Lippi.
“Coaching is so different from playing,” Silva told the SFA. “To teach, you have to explain the session. It’s easy to have it in my head, but explaining the information to the players, it’s not easy. But I think it’s just part of the process.
“It’s been good though. I did the B Licence at Chelsea with Marc Cucurella and Marcus Bettinelli but this is the first time in a big group like this so it’s different.
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“Because I’m at Porto, Andre Villas-Boas is the president of Porto. He told me to come here because, for him, it’s the best school for the teaching so I’m very happy to be here.
“It’s an amazing group and people have different qualities. All the people understand football and this is important for me. It’s been an amazing week.
“I don’t know what comes next. I think in this moment, I need to finish the course first, then recover with my family, enjoy a little bit of life, but at the same time, I will think about the next steps, but I need more time to think.”
Silva has just won the Portuguese top-flight with Porto, adding to titles in Italy and France and a Champions League success with Chelsea five years ago. He is eager to put the foundations in place to ensure he has the best chance possible of thriving when he hangs up his boots.
“Having experienced 20 years of playing football, I’ve had many coaches, but I like Thomas Tuchel, Unai Emery, Francesco Farioli, who I have now at Porto, as well as Tite in the national team,” he said.
“So lots of different profiles and I try to take a little bit here and there. I won lots of trophies as a player and I want to take this mindset into coaching, but I need to start first and work hard to be a champion as a coach as well.”
