Rafael

Rafael Pereira da Silva (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʁafaˈew peˈɾejɾɐ dɐ ˈsiwvɐ]; born 9 July 1990), commonly known as Rafael or Rafael da Silva, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A club Botafogo. He normally plays as a right-back, but can also play on the right side of midfield. He and his twin brother, Fabio, began their careers with Fluminense before joining Manchester United in January 2008. After seven years in England that included three Premier League titles, Rafael joined Lyon in August 2015 for a fee of up to £2.5 million.

Rafael has two caps for Brazil, having made his debut in a 3–1 victory over Denmark on 26 May 2012. He has also played for Brazil at under-17 level and was part of the silver medal-winning under-23 side at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Club Career

Fluminense

Upon joining Fluminense, Rafael was converted to play at full-back by the youth team coach. The club then took part in the 2005 Nike Premier Cup in Hong Kong, where Rafael was spotted by Manchester United scout Les Kershaw, who remarked that the twins reminded him of "two little whippets". Kershaw then telephoned Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and recommended that the club sign the Silva twins. Manchester United got in touch with Fluminense and asked permission for the twins to travel to Manchester to train with them in 2005. Shortly afterwards, a scout claiming to represent Arsenal visited the twins and asked them to come to England to train with Arsenal without the permission of Fluminense; however, they were dissuaded from this by their mother, who reminded them that they had been with Fluminense since they were 11, and that they should show the club some loyalty. Therefore, they decided to sign for Manchester United over Arsenal, and the two clubs agreed a deal in February 2007; the twins moved to Manchester in January 2008 without ever having played for the Fluminense first team.

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