'He came from PSG, to win the Champions League'published at 18:22
Nat Hayward
BBC Sport journalist
'Thiago ohhh. Thiago ohhh. He came from PSG, to win the Champions League.'
The chosen picture from the BBC article announcing Thiago Silva's arrival at Chelsea from Paris St-Germain in August 2020 is of him crestfallen, walking past the Champions League trophy in his final game for the club.
Thomas Tuchel's PSG had lost the final 1-0 to Bayern Munich in front of an empty stadium in Lisbon. The then 35-year-old Silva departed as a club legend but had fallen victim to the Qatar-backed Parisians perennial European heartache as they - and he - lusted after the greatest prize in club football with more and more chaotic results.
Silva could have been forgiven for thinking that dream was dead. He signed a one-year deal to join a Chelsea side on the back of a fourth-placed finish under Frank Lampard - 33 points behind champions Liverpool - and emerging from a transfer ban. Just under five months later Lampard was sacked with the Blues ninth in the Premier League.
But in May 2021, a year on from their mutual heartbreak, Silva and Tuchel stood together again after a Champions league final - this time with winners medals around their necks.
Silva gets Chelsea. In many ways he did one of the most Chelsea things possible - win major silverware at the end of a chaotic season in which a manager is sacked. But, more than that, he is a warrior, a monster - O Monstro. He is not a man who hides his emotions and the fans lived it all through him. What he gave to every game was etched across his face.
When the Covid-19 pandemic prevented any fans from being in Stamford Bridge for the quarter-final round of 16 win over Atletico, the injured Silva's wild celebrations from the stand embodied everything they felt. In that moment he was all of them. All of us.
We knew what an intelligent, technically excellent and physically dominant defender he was, but what he showed us was a human side, almost a vulnerability, that fostered the kind of relationship where you just wanted the best for him.
In the three seasons since his crowning moment, very little has gone smoothly at Chelsea but Silva's level of performance, professionalism and connection to the fans has never waivered - a connection he described in his farewell message as an "indescribable love".
In a period where Blues fans have had no consistency and few figures to cling on to and love, when they returned to the stands as the pandemic ended this Brazilian in the twilight of his career with no prior attachment to the club became just that.
Silva says he "hopes to leave the door open" for a return to the club in some capacity in the future. Until that moment his presence will remain in his songs that ring around Stamford Bridge and the memories of an aging warrior coming to West London to crown his career with the Champions League.