Silvio: “I always gave everything I had, but after my injury at Atlético I was never the same again”
Pothers best embody the red and white spirit of falling and rising. But his body did not accompany his mind. He could have been a legend of Cholismo, but he had to settle for the beginning. Benfica crib, reviews the ordeal that began in the Atlético shortly after landing as a future star.
Ask. His WhatsApp profile photo is significant: lifting the Europa League with Atlético…
Answer. One of the best photos I have on my phone, it is a trophy that I loved winning with Atlético despite not having many minutes that season. We see it a lot, I am very happy about that year. It is a drink that will stay in my mind for many years, forever.
The photo of the Europa League with Atlético is one of the best I have, that cup will remain in my mind forever
Q. Is it one of the most important moments of your career?
Yes, it was the first big trophy I’ve won. Very good for me, for my teammates and for Atlético. That 2012 ended very happy, but it was complicated until December with Manzano and then with Simeone it has been a good year. Very hard, but in the end everyone was very happy for that cup.
Q. It was very hard for the team, but much more so for you, the injuries did not allow you to be who you were.
Yes, at Atlético, I even injured my knee, it was one of the best moments I have had in football. I felt very good, very healthy in my physical and mental abilities and everything made me feel good. Until that moment came. Since then, I have never been the player that Atlético had signed. I am very calm about what I did at Atlético, I have always given my all and I am very proud to have represented that club.
Q. I was 24 years old, I had stood out for Braga, I was already international and Atlético had paid 8 million. How did you manage to take it? It had to be frustrating.
Yes, very hard, because I had just played almost 40 games with Braga and I was at a very good point in my career. We had reached the final of the Europa League and I was very excited to go to Atlético and play, but football has those things. I had bad luck with injuries, but that’s part of football, you have to have a head and be mentally strong. Also, because they are football things, it is normal.
Cholo was always very honest with me, but after the injury he was at 60%, I no longer focused well with my left foot
Q. After Simeone arrived, he can barely play against Lazio in Europe and against Barça in the League.
Cholo has always been very sincere with me and I with him because when he arrived I was still recovering from my knee and the truth is that I have never been the player I was before. I have always given my all for football and I have always been very professional, but to always be competing with the best you have to be 100%. After my injury I was at 60%. In Braga I was a player who played on the right and left, I centered well with both legs and after the injury I have never centered well with my left foot again. I have never been the same player after the injury. But hey, as I told you before, I have always been a professional player and I think people have too.
Q. What did Simeone tell you?
Everyone expected me to reach the level I had before, but I haven’t been able to do that and I was very frustrated: I wanted to compete, play and help the team and I couldn’t. I remember that El Cholo put me in some matches in the Copa del Rey and the Europa League, but I didn’t feel well. I wanted to play and I was angry because I didn’t play, but the truth is that I wasn’t well enough to play. To be honest, I left Atlético like this, also angry with Cholo, but the people were not to blame for that. I did everything to make me feel good and play, but I couldn’t do it. And I have never managed to play well at Atlético again.
Q. Did you have that thorn in your side for not having been able to give what you had?
Yes, because people have treated me very well and I have also always treated all the people at Atlético very well. I really liked being there, but I ended up a little frustrated because I wanted to do much more than what I did at Atlético. But hey, that’s football, there are very good things and bad things, which are injuries.
Q. Have you thought about everything you could have won with Simeone?
He would have many more trophies and cups because El Cholo has done an incredible job with Atlético. He has his players, he has looked for them, because with him not only quality is worth it, but also work. You have to run, fight… He has his work group there and he made a very good work group in those years. It was an incredible job and I would have loved to be there, but it’s life and football.
I ended up frustrated because I wanted to do much more than what I did at Atlético and I couldn’t be well
P. It is enough to see his WhatsApp group to make it clear that he would have been from Cholo’s praetorian guard.
We are Filipe Luis, Tiago, Diego Ribas, Miranda, Paulo Assuncao, Diego Costa, Pizzi… Pizzi, Diego and I arrived the same year and we get along very well, we are the group of Brazilians and Portuguese, but also with the Spanish , the locker room was a family. I made many friends until today. All of these are Cholo players who fought alongside him and have achieved very important and very good things with Atlético.
Q. Seeing how Cholo’s style has evolved, have you never thought that he would have fit even more with the five that he now uses at the back?
I think that has not been my problem, but the injuries, because I also fit well in the four defenses on the sides. Playing now with five for the lane is better for attacking, but in both systems the mentality of their players is always the same. In Cholo’s teams the mentality is always very strong, you have to fight, run… it’s not just quality that comes. There are many quality players who have gone to Atlético and not all of them have managed to play what they wanted. That’s why they are very competitive and winning teams, because what Cholo did at Atlético was make a work group to win.
Q. So you had to go out on loan to Dépor and then to Benfica, but injuries didn’t let you succeed either.
At Dépor, in the four months until the end of the season, I really liked being there. Because of the people in the city, I felt comfortable in the countryside. I scored two goals there and things went well for me personally. Then I went out on loan to Atlético for three seasons. In the first one I was very good, playing almost always, in the League we were first and we won everything that could be won here in Portugal, we were in the final of the Europa League too, but in April I broke my tibia and fibula. Bad luck again. It cost me all the finals and the World Cup. My career has been like this, with many injuries: I would get injured and try to come back and get injured. But I always came back. That’s why I’m happy, because of my mentality of always being there fighting too. It hasn’t been the best race, but it hasn’t been the worst either. I am very proud of what I achieved.
Q. It represents a very cholista and Atlético motto, falling and getting up.
Always, always. I had everything but I haven’t been able to stay there for a long time. I was under contract with Atlético for a long time, but on the field for only a year and a half.
Q. You experienced the goal of the first Champions League up close.
I was here in Lisbon, it was tragic. I remember that game very well. I was watching it with many of my friends and it was tragic for Atlético and for me too, because I wanted him to win, I still had a contract. Those last minutes after 90 were a shame. But they fell and got back up again. And another final. And they have lost, but that’s football.
P. Even so, it cannot be said that today my heart is divided.
My entire training was at Benfica, it is my club, the club of my life, of my family. But it’s going to be a special game for me because they are two teams that I love. This is the club of my life, but Atlético has been the one that has opened the doors to Europe for me and I have great affection for it. What I most want is for it to be a great football match and for the best to win.
Benfica is the club of my training, of my life and that of my family, but Atleti is the one that opened the doors to Europe for me
Q. See a favorite?
Atlético is a club with more name right now, especially in Europe, it is a very expert team in the Champions League. His coach really likes this competition and is always there to win, to fight. But Benfica is also a giant. Here at home you will feel a very good atmosphere. He has also changed coaches to one who knows the people and the club very well because he has been trained here and the team is doing well. Now it’s like four wins in a row. He is motivated and I think it will be a very good game. Two completely different teams, different, but they play well. It’s going to be a very good match for me.
Q. With the team you have made, will it be the year in which Atlético removes the thorn in the Champions League?
The fact is that the best are in the Champions League. Atlético is better every year, but so are the others, all the teams have good players. I saw the derby, Madrid has a great team, but Atlético is always there, they are a very difficult team to give up on and they are always there until the end. And then you have very good players who can change a game like Correa when he comes off the bench. He has many players to have a good Champions League season, but let’s see.
A still very beloved ‘Cholo soldier’, member of an old guard WhatsApp group
Silvio’s WhatsApp also reveals him to be a member of a group in which there is no shortage of activity practically daily. “We are Filipe Luis, Tiago, Diego Ribas, Miranda, Assuncao, Diego Costa, Pizzi… Pizzi, Diego and I started together, we are the group of Brazilians and Portuguese, but also with the Spanish, there was a very good relationship. It was a family in the locker room. I made many friends until today. All of those are Cholo players who fought alongside him and have achieved very important and very good things with Atlético,” he explains.
