Santiago Martín Silva Olivera (born 9 December 1980) is a

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a forward. His nickname is ''El Tanque (The Tank)''.

Career

Silva started his career in Uruguay playing for

Central Español Central Español Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Central Español is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. History The F.U.F era Together with Peñarol, Central founded FUF (Uruguayan football federation) in 1923 after being expel ...

, River Plate Montevideo and

Defensor Sporting Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievement ...

. He then had his first spell outside the country playing with Brazilian side SC Corinthians. However, after half a year he returned to Uruguay to play for Nacional (where he won the 2002 Uruguayan Primera División), and a second period with River Plate. Subsequently, Silva had two

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an spells with German

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

and Portuguese S.C. Beira-Mar. In 2005, he had his first spell in Argentina playing half a season for

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

. After half a year back in Uruguay with his first team, Central Español, Silva returned to Argentina to play for Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in 2006. Three years after his period at Gimnasia, the Uruguayan forward admitted to the press that the team lost on purpose a match against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

, who were challenging the 2006 Apertura with Gimnasia's rivals

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

, after pressure from their own team's hooligans. Silva joined Vélez Sarsfield in 2007, and was loaned to Banfield in 2009. He played 2 Short tournaments with Banfield scoring 22 goals in 35 games with the team. During the 2009 Apertura he scored 14 goals in 18 games, including two in the victory on the derby against

Lanús Lanús () is the capital of Lanús Partido, Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It lies just south of the capital city Buenos Aires, in the Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, metropolitan area. The List of cities in Argentina, city has a populati ...

. Silva helped Banfield obtain their first

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

title of their history and finished as the tournament's top scorer in the process. During his time in Banfield, he played along fellow Uruguayan player Sebastián Fernández as his striking partner. In January 2010, he returned from his loan to Vélez Sársfield. He made a strong striking partnership with Juan Manuel Martínez during the 2010 Apertura (in which Vélez was runner-up). Silva started the 19 games and scored 11 goals, while Martínez scored a further 10 in 19. The Uruguayan forward also finished the tournament as league top scorer, along Tigre's Denis Stracqualursi. The following semester, Silva won his second Argentine league title (first with Vélez) playing 13 games and scoring 7 goals during the 2011 Clausura. However, he was not the team's top goalscorer, due to David Ramírez finishing the tournament one goal ahead. He also helped his team reach the semi-finals of the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

, playing 9 games and scoring 4 times. Silva started the 2011–12 season with Vélez, playing two games and scoring once. However, on August 23,

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

paid his contract's buyout clause of €1.73 million. Silva decided to join the Italian club citing personal reasons (he wanted a second chance in European football), despite there not being an economical difference between the contract offered by Fiorentina and the renewal offered by Vélez. Later on in 2012, he played for the Argentine team

. He made his first goal against Estudiantes (LP) and in the Copa Libertadores 2012 he scored a goal against

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile currently participating in the Primera División de Chile. History Foundation, Amateur Era and First seasons ...

scoring his first goal in the tournament with Boca Juniors. After Boca qualified to the Quarter Finals they played against Brazilian team Fluminense were Silva in the second game leading by the 90 minute, scored the 1-1 which made Boca Juniors qualify to the Semi Finals. He later scored against

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

which qualified Boca Juniors to the Finals, where they lost 2-0 against Corinthians which became champions in Copa Libertadores 2012. In 2015, Silva signed for

Arsenal de Sarandí Arsenal Fútbol Club (), usually referred as Arsenal de Sarandí , or simply Arsenal, is an Argentine sports club from the Sarandí district of Avellaneda Partido, Greater Buenos Aires. The football team currently plays in Primera Nacional, t ...

after a spell at

, in which he played a key part in winning the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

. On 1 January 2016, Silva returned to Banfield.

Honours

Club

;Nacional *

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , , local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, football league in Uruguay organized b ...

(1):

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

;Banfield *

(1): 2009 Apertura ;Vélez Sársfield *

(1): 2011 Clausura ;Boca Juniors *

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

(1): 2011–12 Copa Argentina ;Lanús *

(1):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Individual

* Argentine Primera División top scorer (2): 2009 Apertura (with Banfield), 2010 Apertura (with Vélez Sársfield)

References

External links