Thiago Silva is only four months away from achieving the personal goal he set for himself 16 years ago, while watching his 41-year-old Milan team-mate Paolo Maldini defy time. “Meeting Maldini sparked something in me,” he told the Guardian in 2023. “I was 24 when I arrived and looking at him made me think: ‘The way I look after myself — I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t miss my sleep — means I can reach Maldini’s level’.” He then added: “Age level, I mean, of course, not performance level. There is only one Maldini.” Silva may have been too harsh on himself. He is a one-of-a-kind footballer too, a defensive master and leader who seems somehow less vulnerable to the ravages of time than most of us. Of the 23 major trophies he has won in his professional career, 17 have arrived in the decade that has passed since his 30th birthday. Remarkably, he is not the oldest player in his team; that honour belongs to Fabio, Fluminense’s near-ever-present 44-year-old goalkeeper. Perhaps that could be Silva’s next target.