What Impact Could Thiago Silva Losing the Brazil Captaincy Have on the PSG Man?

New Brazil coach Dunga announced on Thursday that Paris Saint-Germain’s Thiago Silva is no longer the captain of the Selecao, with Barcelona’s Neymar named as his replacement.

The 50-year-old suggested during this summer’s FIFA World Cup that he would not choose Silva as his captain if he were national-team coach once again, and the 1994 title-winning captain has remained true to his word:

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Dunga during the World Cup publicly said if he was coach, he wouldn't choose Thiago Silva as captain. Interesting to see what happens now.

— Seleção Brasileira (@BrazilStats) July 19, 2014"

Dunga was appointed Brazil coach for the second time in his career back in July, in the aftermath of a poor World Cup campaign on home soil, and the 2007 Copa America winner’s return had prompted plenty of questions.

Particularly prominent among those questions was the future of Silva as captain, not only because Dunga did not appear keen on the PSG man, but also because he had demonstrated considerable weakness during the World Cup.

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However, Dunga was not Silva’s only critic. Brazil’s famous 1970 World Cup-winning captain, Carlos Alberto Torres, and the legendary Zico also voiced their concerns according to SporTV (h/t SL10).

Silva’s reluctance to take a penalty in the last-16 clash with Chile in Belo Horizonte betrayed a player who was cracking under the pressure of leading his team during such a massive tournament. It also raised questions over his status as one of the best leaders in the game and whether or not he has the right character to be a captain at both club and international level.

A horrible performance in Silva’s absence—the catastrophic 7-1 defeat to eventual winners Germany in the semi-final—appeared to have restored Silva’s reputation as Brazil’s on-pitch leader, but in the eyes of Dunga, the damage was obviously already done.

The Selecao tactician’s job of informing Silva of the change was made even easier by the fact that the 29-year-old is currently injured after picking up a hamstring problem in PSG’s ill-timed friendly clash with SSC Napoli back in August.

With the former AC Milan man currently recovering in the French capital, Dunga took the opportunity to effect his change, speaking to the former captain before announcing his decision according to ESPN FC.

Now the big question is what will happen to Silva at club level.

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For the moment, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is doing a fine job of filling in for the Brazilian while he recovers from injury, but Silva will immediately resume his role as captain when fit again. However, there is a feeling in Paris that the South American might have grown a bit too big for his boots.

President Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s suggestion that he consulted both Silva and Ibrahimovic before the signing of French international Yohan Cabaye earlier this year, per L’Equipe (h/t Goal’s Gill Clark), infers that both players have a say about the players brought in by the club.

Themba Hadebe/Associated Press

With that in mind, it would appear highly likely that Silva played a major role in the inexplicably expensive purchase of international team-mate David Luiz. The Luiz move tied PSG’s hands on the transfer market this summer, preventing them from signing the players that they really needed and wanted such as Angel Di Maria.

On top of that, the attitude displayed by Silva at the end of a personally disappointing last season—prior to the World Cup—left a lot to be desired. The PSG No. 2 was visibly playing within himself, and coach Laurent Blanc even admitted that the Brazilian missed the final two games of the season through fear of getting injured before the tournament, per Agence France-Presse (h/t FIFA.com).

In Silva’s absence, Ibrahimovic has done an excellent job of leading the PSG team and is—without doubt—les Parisiens’ spiritual leader and the most influential player in the squad.

However, the super Swede is his national team’s captain and likely does not want the burden of being the permanent leader for club and country, possibly explaining why he was not made captain when Silva replaced Christophe Jallet back in 2012.

Remy de la Mauviniere/Associated Press

Right now, it would be ill-advised for PSG to also strip Silva of the captaincy after the morale-crushing experience of having lost the leadership of the Brazilian national team.

However, this summer’s World Cup and last season’s happenings suggest that Blanc could benefit from re-assigning the captaincy to Ibrahimovic full-time, if the Swede wishes to accept it, of course.

With Ibrahimovic likely to be paying his final season of club football next term, it will be interesting to see how Blanc handles the situation between now and the start of the next campaign.