Who is better, Van Persie or Thiago Silva?
Robin van Persie leads with a GOAT score of 84.2 against 84.1 for Thiago Silva — a gap of 0.1 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
AthletesTeams
Van Persie vs Thiago Silva
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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
Van PersieWinner
84.2Van Persie wins: Dominance, Peak, Statistics
Thiago Silva
84.1Thiago Silva wins: Longevity, Honours
Candidates
Locked to FootballShareable URL · /compare/robin-van-persie-vs-thiago-silva
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇳🇱 Robin van Persie
84.2
Van Persie leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Robin van Persie
2. Thiago Silva
Category breakdown
Season form · Goals per season
Career timeline · Goals per season
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Through age 21 · Goals per season
1. 🇳🇱 Robin van Persie14 goals
3 seasons by age 21 · 4.7 per season
Setting the pace at age 21
No verified birth date for Thiago Silva — shown in the pro-debut view instead.
Every career is cut at the season the athlete turned 21, so a rookie today is measured against exactly what a legend had banked by the same birthday.
| Metric | Van PersieRetired | Thiago SilvaActive |
|---|---|---|
| Career league goals | 204 | — |
| Netherlands caps | 102 | — |
| Premier League Golden Boots | 2 | — |
| Premier League titles | 1 | — |
| UEFA Cup titles | 1 | — |
| Champions League titles | — | 1 |
| League titles | — | 9 |
| Copa América titles | — | 1 |
| Brazil caps | — | 113 |
| Olympic medals | — | 1 |
| Dominance w25% | 88 | 82 |
| Peak w20% | 90 | 86 |
| Longevity w20% | 80 | 88 |
| Honours w20% | 75 | 84 |
| Statistics w15% | 88 | 80 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Van Persie84.2
Thiago Silva84.1
The people
Van Persie
Thiago Silva
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Where does Thiago Silva beat Van Persie?
Thiago Silva scores higher on honours, longevity. Van Persie leads on peak, dominance, statistics.
How is the Van Persie vs Thiago Silva score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Van Persie: 84.2, Thiago Silva: 84.1.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Van Persie vs Thiago Silva. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.