Tiago Silva dos Santos (born 4 April 1979 in

Taquari Taquari is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the South Region of Brazil. Rio G ...

, Rio Grande do Sul) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a defender. Born in Brazil, he represented the Bulgaria national team once in a friendly.

Club career

Tiago Silva joined

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

from

PFC Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

in 2005. He has also previously played for

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

, with whom he has won the

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, pt, Copa Mercosul , "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV m ...

and Copa Libertadores trophies. He signed a three-year contract with Belgian First Division Club

Racing Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgium, Belgian professional association football, football club based in the city of Genk in Limburg (Belgium), Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays ...

on 18 July 2007.

International career

Tiago Silva made one appearance with the Bulgaria national football team in a 3–1 friendly win against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

on 17 August 2005. However, Tiago Silva had already been capped for the Brazilian Youth team in the

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams that ...

, so FIFA cancelled the request for a change of nationality. Although FIFA loosened the nationality transfer of uncapped players and players with multi-nationality in 2009, it has not benefited Tiago Silva, because he did not hold multi-nationality when he represented Brazil. He is still eligible to play for

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

References

External links

* *
Guardian Football
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Tiago 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Rio Grande do Sul Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria international footballers Brazilian footballers Brazil under-20 international footballers Brazilian emigrants to Bulgaria Brazilian expatriate footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers Esporte Clube Juventude players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players PFC Litex Lovech players PFC CSKA Sofia players K.R.C. Genk players Naturalised citizens of Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Belgium First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Belgian Pro League players Association football defenders