It is perhaps expecting too much of the world’s footballers, and former footballers, to get too involved in the disgrace that engulfs the governing body, Fifa. Even so, the former World Cup winner Gilberto Silva looks genuinely troubled by how few of his ilk have felt compelled to merely express an opinion, to demand better, about how the game is run. Football’s great players, he feels, should be at the forefront of the conversation.

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“I think everyone who loves football – players, ex-players, managers – must stand up and have a say about this,” Gilberto says. “It’s impossible that nobody says anything, that everyone stays quiet. It is very strange. I don’t know why, but I haven’t seen many players or ex-players stand up and say: ‘What’s going on?’ It is very frustrating and disappointing. It is time for a big change and those who made a mistake must be punished. If I do some mistakes in my life I have to pay for it. Why not those people?”

Luís Figo put himself forward in the presidential race but withdrew last summer, just before the flurry of arrests and corruption charges. Gilberto is adamant more players should be involved in running the game, and is willing to take an active role himself. “Of course,” he says. “We are capable of doing it. But it is very important that we prepare ourselves, to have a better understanding of how these things work and how we can help. There are many problems to confront. We knew how to face the kind of problems you would find on the pitch. Outside the pitch, we don’t know what to expect. We don’t know the people beside us – you can think he is your friend but he might be the devil.”

Gilberto, 39 and hoping to play on for a little longer if he possibly can after missing last season because of a knee injury, is a footballer with a strong social conscience. Back in Brazil he was one of the leading figures behind the Bom Senso movement, a group of players trying to force transparency, democracy and more “common sense” in the game in his country. It wasn’t easy. Those involved were often threatened by their clubs by people who, as Gilberto describes it, “just look down their nose, and see what is good for them. You have to fight against a big machine and you are very little. They just want to take advantage of the machine. We want a better game for everyone, not just for us as players, but for fans, for clubs, for Brazilian football in general. It is crazy because some people see us as an enemy. I don’t know why. Maybe they have something to hide? We don’t. That is why we put our face in front of the situation.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gilberto Silva was at the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s game against Dinamo Zagreb and says the club winning the Premier League ‘would be a good gift to Arsène for what he has done over nearly 20 years’. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Striving to do the right thing has been in Gilberto’s nature since boyhood. He went out to work at the age of 11 to help support his family. He smiles as he remembers what he did with his first wages, after a week working on a coffee plantation. “I bought a chicken for my parents,” he recalls. “I had to travel with this chicken on the bus. I was a bit shy and it started screeching. I just pretended not to be myself. My father was happy. Meat for us was a marvellous thing for our lunch on a Sunday. We could not get a chicken to eat every day.”

At the time Gilberto’s mother was sick and in need of a kidney transplant. His father worked in the steelworks for a modest salary. With three younger sisters to care for, Gilberto decided to work from a young age. After the coffee plantation, he found other jobs. “At 12 I worked in upholstery, helping the guys making sofas and this kind of stuff. At 13 I worked in building construction. I learned so many things. I know how much money costs. I stopped school because I had to work to help my father to put food on the table in our home, to help my mum to get her treatment.”

His mother returned to health, and Gilberto’s life turned out better than he ever imagined when his career in football took off. By the age of 26 he was a world champion. His performances as a midfield anchor during the 2002 World Cup caught Arsène Wenger’s eye and shortly after Brazil beat Germany in Tokyo, he joined Arsenal, where he spent “the best years, the fantastic years” of his career.

He was back in London recently, lending his support to the Street Child United charity which uses football to aid the homeless. No visit to England is possible without dropping in at the Arsenal training ground to catch up with old friends. He joked with Wenger that he just needed a pair of boots and he was ready to cover for the injured Francis Coquelin. “I told him I was ready,” chuckles the man who earned the nickname of Invisible Wall.

“Since I left if I am not wrong Arsenal didn’t have a player to fill that role until him,” says Gilberto. “They had some other players in that position like Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, and before that Cesc Fàbregas. But not this type of player, the guy who holds the piano to let the others play. I hope he recovers well and in time to help Arsenal this season. They will need him for sure.” Gilberto believes it is up to the fit players in the squad to step up at the moment. “It’s a very hard time for the club and for the manager to organise the team, facing lots of injuries. Arsène has so many problems and doesn’t have so many players. The players must respond to that.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho, here racing away from Martín Demichelis of Manchester City, is described by Gilberto Silva as ‘amazing’. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

“This is a crucial moment, where the season can basically be decided. If they keep to their strengths in this period to keep consistency they have a good chance. It’s come to a time for Arsenal to win the league again. It would be a good gift to Arsène for what he has done over nearly 20 years.”

As well as keeping an eye on Arsenal, Gilberto has noted the Premier League impact made by Philippe Coutinho: “He is amazing. I have seen him play a few times for Liverpool and it’s nice to see he is delivering in English football. He cannot physically compete but he has a very quick mind. He gets the ball and passes and moves and they cannot catch him. In Brazil we have this kind of thing inside of us to take responsibility and he is doing that.”

The best of the new wave have the characteristics to help Brazil to recover after the profound disappointment of the 2014 World Cup. Neymar, according to Gilberto, is equipped to join the pantheon in Brazilian folklore. “For his age what he has done is very impressive. I was so happy when he moved to Europe. I think he came at the right time, when he was prepared for this move. He has been brave. I believe in a few years time he will be among those guys who made history in Brazilian football.”

Having watched the nadir, that 7-1 defeat by Germany, in the studio alongside Michael Ballack – “Can you imagine how hard that was for me?” he winces – Gilberto does not go overboard on the idea of a Brazil recovery. “It is still a big challenge to be honest,” he says. “Since then I have seen things concerning change move very slowly in Brazil, not everyone sitting down to make a big discussion about what went wrong in Brazilian football over the last 10 years.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brazil’s 7-1 defeat by Germany at the 2014 World Cup was a wake-up call but Gilberto Silva says: ‘Since then I have seen things concerning change move very slowly.’ Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

“Look at what has been happening in our local football. Many clubs still need big improvement in their infrastructure. Some don’t even have a good training ground. That’s shameful in 2015. In some favelas, we don’t play football in the streets any more. Some of the places we used to play there is now a big building. We lost so many of those spaces. Something must be done to find a model, a good structure to help the kids be more professional without losing what is in our blood, the joga bonito, the nice skills that can make another Neymar, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Pelé … ”

As an ambassador for Street Child, Gilberto appreciates the fine lines for youngsters who end up with no sense of direction. “These kids are not fortunate to have good conditions in their lives,” says Gilberto. “They are struggling on the streets. They had a hard, bad life. They are no one in the world. Some people treat them like rubbish. But those guys from Street Child care about them. Football is an important tool for them to get back into society, to be involved in something.

“When I compare my life with them my life was hard but I never had to sleep on the street, I never had to grab food from a bin, as many of them have done in their lives. I try to put myself in their situation. What are they asking for? You can see it very deeply. They just need an opportunity, somebody to believe in them. But if nobody supports them maybe they will die on the streets. They just want to be part of the world.”

Gilberto Silva is an ambassador for Street Child United: www.streetchildunited.org