**Chelsea legend John Terry has backed Thiago Silva to rejoin the club during the January transfer window.**
The 41-year-old left the Blues to return to Brazil last year. However, after 18 months with Fluminense, he will be leaving at the end of this month, and he is keen to come back to Europe in order to be closer to his family. Terry says he thinks Silva could offer invaluable experience to Enzo Maresca’s squad, which is full of young players:
“Thiago Silva is available. Now, listen to me, a man with great experience, a man with a great relationship with our football club. His two kids are in our academy, no doubt he’s going to be back in London over here with his family for Christmas. I would love to see this man back at our football club playing alongside these players. Now, I’m not saying he has to play every week, but just the experience he can bring, playing alongside someone like that…”
“Probably goes back to my role under Antonio Conte in 2017 when we won the league. I didn’t play, but I had a role to play within the group, be that buffer between the players, the manager, the owners, and have that bit of experience where, sometimes, when you’re going through a tough spell or when you’re going through a good spell as well, you know what to say, what to deliver, and he certainly brings that as well. So, Thiago Silva back to Chelsea, that would make everyone very, very happy, me included in that, so who knows? I’m just throwing it out there. Thiago, we love you.”
Maresca did ask for a centre-back last summer
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It should not be forgotten that, following Levi Colwill’s ACL injury, the manager made it clear that he wanted to strengthen the centre of defence.
[**Maresca**](https://chelseanews.com/blog/chelsea-news-liam-rosenior/)‘s calls went unheeded at the time, with sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart opting against any new additions in that position, but they could change their minds in January.
Is Silva likely to return to Chelsea?
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As Terry mentions, both of Silva’s sons are at Cobham, and it is believed that he would like to be based in London once again
Despite not showing any willingness to pay transfer fees for players over the age of 25, the Blues have shown more interest in recruiting older stars if they are available on free transfers.
With Silva set to be without a club as of January 1st, the opportunity is there to snap him up if they want him. There are even suggestions that the centre-back would be open to a salary within the Blues’ current wage structure.
[**Read more about the Chelsea First Team Squad for 2025/26 here**](https://chelseanews.com/blog/chelsea-first-team-squad/)