Gilberto Aparecido da Silva, (IPA-pt?i??be?tu ?si?v?; born 7 October 1976) commonly known as Gilberto Silva, is a Brazilian footballer (football (soccer)). He currently plays for the Greek Superleague club fcPanathinaikos, as a defensive midfielder (Midfielder#Defensive midfielder).

Gilberto was raised in a poor family and as a child he balanced playing football with various labour jobs. He began his football career in 1997 with Am�rica Mineiro (Am�rica Futebol Clube (MG)), where good form earned him a move to Atl�tico Mineiro (Clube Atl�tico Mineiro) in 2000. He became a star player for Atl�tico, playing for three years in the Brazilian (Brazilian football league system) Campeonato Brasileiro S�rie A. He came to particular prominence when he helped the Brazilian national team (Brazil national football team) win the 2002 FIFA World Cup, playing in all seven of Brazils matches.

In August 2002, for a fee of �4.5 million, he joined Arsenal, with whom he won the 2004 FA Premier League as an Invincible, and two FA Cup trophies. In his first five seasons with the club, he played 208 games and scored 23 goals. On 19 August 2006 he scored Arsenals first competitive goal at the newly built Emirates Stadium. He was made vice-captain (Vice-captain (football)) of Arsenal in 2006. During his time with the Gunners, Gilberto developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe. In 2007, he was selected as Brazil captain for the Copa Am�rica tournament, which Brazil went on to win.