David Silva reveals weeks of anguish fearing for the life of his prematurely-born son changed his whole outlook
DAVID SILVA led Manchester City to a record-breaking Premier League triumph last season despite being “scared to death” that he would lose his prematurely born son.
The Spain ace missed eight matches — and most of the festive programme — for Pep Guardiola’s 100-point champions as baby boy Mateo spent five months in a Valencia hospital.
Now, in an exclusive SunSport interview, Silva reveals the full emotion of what he and his family went through as his first child, born after just 25 weeks, fought for his life.
Silva said: “They were very hard times, the toughest months of my life.
“It was really tough outside the pitch rather than inside, especially with my son’s illness.
“I came to Spain and spoke to the doctors, they had different answers, we didn’t know what was going to happen tomorrow.
It was the fear of the unknown. Everything was OK but they said in a week’s time they didn’t know. It scared me to death.
“When you are travelling abroad to see your family you can’t be 100 per cent concentrated on your job or profession with a problem like this.
“The travelling to and from Spain was a very difficult time.”
Silva’s trauma put the pressure of playing football at the highest level in the Prem or Champions League firmly into perspective.
Mateo, who was finally allowed home in May as Silva missed City’s open-top bus parade title celebrations in Manchester, is now progressing well.
City fans sing ‘We’re Man City, we fight ’til the end’ in reference to the glorious and remarkable 94th-minute goal scored by Sergio Aguero which clinched the 2012 Prem crown.
And during our chat this week at the Anfi del Mar resort in Silva’s homeland of Gran Canaria where he is an ambassador, I asked the mercurial playmaker whether Mateo has shown the same fighting spirit as his team-mates did on that famous day at the Etihad.
Silva, who cut a relaxed figure in the Spanish sunshine as he prepared to return for pre-season training in Manchester on Sunday following time off after the World Cup, started grinning when he replied: “Mateo has shown much, much more! Mateo is fighting all the time.
“I can give up sometimes but he’s a fighter! It’s the Manchester City spirit.”
Long-serving City midfield star Silva, 32, viewed as one of the best players in the club’s history, now has a tattoo with the words “Never surrender” and the ink-work of Mateo’s face on his left arm for inspiration moving forward.
He said: “The tattoo says never surrender, always fight, fight, fight.
“If you have any problems, when you are feeling a little bit down, then look at that. My son has gone through a bad time but it helps me that he is going to be stronger again.
“Mateo is very good at the moment and thank God everything is OK now.
“I have to keep an eye on him all the time. The doctors are doing different tests but fingers crossed everything is OK. I am very happy and I will be 100 per cent ready for the new season.
“It has changed my way of thinking a lot in life. Now my priority has changed completely towards my family life. But it hasn’t changed the way I look at football.
“Football is very simple for me. I’m a very quiet person and I always try to take the pressure off myself before games.
“Thanks to the football, every time I go out and play it releases the tension and you forget about the problems.
“Once you go back to the changing room and back to the mobile, you start asking, ‘What is happening? Is he getting better? What is going to happen?’.
“Playing football was a big release for me. As soon as I touch the grass I have no worries.
“I try to enjoy playing football and do my best for the team.”
With Mateo on the road to recovery, Silva aims to give his all again for Guardiola’s men, with his partner Yessica Suarez Gonzalez taking care of their little boy in Spain.
He added: “I will try to concentrate on this season and play in all the games. But I would love to see my son watching me play for Manchester City.
“I am thinking about taking him on to the pitch at the ground and showing people that this is an example for me.
“I have received a lot of messages from people that need help.
“When Mateo is more relaxed in the near future I am going to think about charity work to help with awareness.”
Silva will continue to make frequent trips back to Spain but the three-time Premier League winner admits he owes a major debt of gratitude to City boss Guardiola.
Silva, who is likely to be available for the new season’s curtain-raiser against Chelsea in the Community Shield at Wembley next Sunday, added: “Guardiola made it very easy for me.
He said, ‘Whatever you need, you can have it’.
“That’s the way he has always been. He has made a lot of big favours to me. I will always appreciate his help.
“He is more than a manager to me, he is a fantastic human being, not only because people have seen what he has done for me. He’s a fantastic person.
“When you have family and football in the same balance, sometimes you have to prioritise the family and Guardiola understood that very well.
“I am going to continue performing the same as I have been doing all this time. I give 100 per cent.
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“He asked for eight goals but I got ten. I will do my best, as always!
“It will be very difficult to get to 100 points but we will try to get to this level again.
“It’s very important for me to win the Premier League again.
“We have never done it back-to-back but that is our aim this year.”
DAVID SILVA learned how to play football on the beach at Arguineguin on his homeland of Gran Canaria.
And the Manchester City ace, who is an ambassador for the resort of the Anfi Group, believes British holiday makers would love a trip to the Canary Island, which is just 100 miles off the north western coast of Africa.
Silva, whose mother Eva used to work at the Anfi complex, promotes the resort with the slogan, ‘This is my beach...see you soon in Anfi’.
And during his summer break, Silva takes the chance to return home and enjoy some sun by the Atlantic Ocean.
The Spain midfielder, 32, said: “It’s probably one of the best places in the world to live.
“Obviously I was born here, but it has the best consistent climate in the world - 350 days of sun.
“I love to come to Gran Canaria and stay with my family and my girlfriend and now my son.
“There’s nothing better to do in life than that.”
- David Silva is an ambassador for Anfi Group, a luxury holiday company on the island of Gran Canaria. For more information go to
- For Special Offers, contact Anfi Tel. (+34) 928 062 444 E-mail: [email protected]