Beyond not being noticed, Gilberto was a role model By Sylvester Kwentua
While growing up and playing football in my youth, I saw myself as a combative midfielder, with the ability to break up play and lay a pass for goal. i fell in love with my abilities as a midfielder, and when i signed an amateur contract with a local football club and the coach asked me which midfield player I would like to fashion my game after, I mentioned Gilberto Silva
I saw the surprise written all over my coach’s face at the choice of Gilberto. He asked why I wished to be like Gilberto, despite the presence of other more noticeable midfielders, winning accolades for their style of play? I simply told him I liked his simplicity. Several years later, the prof, Arsene Wenger, seemed to agree with me.
When asked to name the most underrated player he ever coached, Wenger told Ian Wright in an interview with SPORTbible: ‘Gilberto Silva. He was naturally discreet. I remember when I bought him in 2002 he was in Japan at the World Cup.
‘I looked at him and I thought he doesn’t make anything special but then you think who won that ball and it’s Gilberto Silva, or who made that pass and it’s Gilberto Silva.
‘I went to buy him and after that I would say in the Invincibles, nobody speaks about him but he’s the kind of player you see only how much they miss them when they don’t play. When they play they find it all natural.”
Arsene Wenger also made mention of some other players he managed who were underrated, but in all the players he mentioned, Gilberto Silva stands out as the player who was truly the most underrated but effective player in his successful teams of great. Thank you Wenger for signing up a good midfielder and role model, thank you Gilberto Silva for some quiet but wonderful performances in the shirts of Arsenal.
We are Arsenal and proud.
Sylvester
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