"My agent came up with a plan, in which my mother would go to London and I would go with her. I fled Benfica, because I had a training contract and they did not want to let me leave," Toni Silva said in an interview with A Bola. He is now 33 and playing for Sacavenense in the first division of the Lisbon district league, after a career that has taken in Benfica, Chelsea, Liverpool, Northampton, Barnsley, Dagenham and spells in Bulgaria, Türkiye, Greece, South Africa, Egypt, Romania, Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Malta.

Chelsea, Liverpool and the moves in between

Silva's account of the middle of that journey is the odd part. "One week they sent me to train at West Ham, another week at Fulham, to hide me. They did not want Benfica to know, because that could cause problems," he said. The move to Liverpool eventually followed, with Benfica asking for almost €1 million and Liverpool closing the transfer for €500,000.

He also says the deal came with a 3-year contract, and that he trained for 3 or 4 months with Liverpool's first team while also playing for the reserves and in friendlies. "I even played friendlies for the A team, but they did not give me opportunities," he said. He added that Liverpool were looking more at young players with an English passport at the time.

Silva's time at Chelsea left a different impression. "Chelsea was very different. It had nothing to do with Liverpool, because the first-team players supported us and gave us special affection. I liked being there more," he said. He also recalled being a ball boy in the famous Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, the one that featured the Drogba incident and Iniesta's goal. "It was a robbery. I even appeared on television. These are things that leave a mark," he said.

The striking thing is not that he passed through big clubs, but how many different routes his career has taken since those youth years at Benfica. At 33, he is back in the Lisbon district league with Sacavenense, a long way from the stages he once saw from the touchline at Stamford Bridge.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →