Premier League
Identical twin brothers Rafael and Fabio da Silva open up on Cristiano Ronaldo influencing their joining Man United as teenagers
n the lockdown summer of 2020, two twin brothers would run together in the French countryside. Every day for five weeks. Thirty five consecutive days.
One of them, Fabio da Silva, was recovering from a dreadful knee injury suffered playing for Nantes. The other, Rafael, was there simply because he could not bear to think of his brother suffering alone.
‘We don’t hide for anyone,’ Fabio told Sportsmail this week. ‘We have a very, very special bond. To know he travelled with his family just for me. It didn’t just motivate me, it saved me.’
It has always been this way. From the age of five, the Da Silvas played for the same junior team near their home in Petropolis, north of Rio.
When they were 11, they lived together in a dormitory at Fluminense’s academy, billeted with bigger, older boys.
‘For the first three weeks, my brother cried every night,’ said Rafael. ‘At times I cried, too. It was hard. We just had to stick together, as always.’
The Da Silva twins are known in England for their time playing together for Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. First spotted by the club aged 12, they arrived in Manchester when they were still only 17.
For both full-backs, the path to the first team was barred by Gary Neville, Patrice Evra, John O’Shea and Wes Brown. Neville is said to have uttered: ‘Rafael has been bought to retire me’.
Fabio found the challenge and the environment harder than his brother. He believes his innate nervousness stopped him achieving all that he may have. He suffered anxiety before matches.
Yet he played in United’s Champions League final defeat against Barcelona at Wembley in 2011 and won the Premier League. Rafael – the youngest Brazilian to play Premier League football – won the title three times.
‘In Brazil our story was seen as incredible,’ smiled Fabio on a Zoom call from France. ‘Not many young players went to England from our home like they do now.
‘But even though we both played for Brazil a few times (they have two caps each), I think we are now remembered more in Manchester.’
‘I love him because he set a very big example for young boys like us. That is what he will do for the players this second time.
‘The things I took from Cristiano are for life. The players about to play with him now at United should be thankful every day.’
The Da Silvas’ story is gently told in their newly-published book. The Sunshine Kids reads like a fairytale at times. Nevertheless, the challenges presented by their careers were real.
For Fabio, his route post-United to France came via spells at QPR, Cardiff and Middlesbrough. Rafael stayed at Old Trafford after Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 only to suffer the reigns of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal.
‘Van Gaal hated instinct, hated one-touch football,’ Rafael says in the book. ‘He slowed us down so much our football was unrecognisable. He wanted no heart and all head. It felt like an army camp.’
Having spent five years at Lyon, Rafael is now a free agent after a short stay in Turkey. The fondness for United remains.
Both players name Rio Ferdinand – who Rafael called ‘the professor’ – Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick as formative influences.
Less fondness is felt for Carlos Tevez. ‘He didn’t respect me and the way he spoke to me on the field wasn’t nice,’ says Rafael. Michael Owen, meanwhile, seemed ‘more interested in horses than football’.
On their very first day at training in January 2008, Fabio looped the ball over the head of Paul Scholes completely by accident, a ‘trick’ greeted wildly by a whooping Ferdinand.
‘At that moment I really thought I was in a dream,’ laughed Fabio.
Ferguson, for his part, loved both boys to a degree that he has penned the foreword to their book and, when Rafael returned to Old Trafford in the Champions League with Istanbul Basaksehir last November, he asked to see him after the final whistle.
‘He just wanted to see that I was OK,’ recalled Rafael. ‘We didn’t talk about football, just life. I was still in my boots and kit. What a man.’
Not that Ferguson could always tell the two Da Silvas apart. Rafael used to slip on his brother’s wedding ring just to confuse their manager but soon realised that was not necessary. Often, in serious moments, the wrong twin would find themselves on the end of a Ferguson rollocking.
‘Even after five or six years he never could tell us apart,’ laughed Fabio this week.
‘The boys – Fletch, Rio – they could. But the manager? Never.’
The early months at Manchester were spent in a small house with their parents, Laurinda and Jose Maria, near United’s Carrington training ground off the M60. Hardly footballer chic.
But during their time there, they grew from boys to men. They became serious competitors.
At Liverpool, Steven Gerrard despised them, describing them to Wayne Rooney as a ‘pair of p*****’.
Fabio and Rafael laugh about that now. Equally, they recognise the standards to which they were introduced under Ferguson. Fabio saw precious little of that at other clubs, while Rafael saw things begin to slide under Moyes and Van Gaal.
‘I think that’s the big difference, you know,’ said Fabio.
‘The talent was still in these clubs but they didn’t have the commitment or the work rate.
‘At Cardiff I worked for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. I love Ole. He had been reserve manager for me at United. He is a nice guy and I hated it because I felt some players took advantage of that.
‘Me and my brother always had a desire but also we learned a lot from Cristiano and Fletcher, Carrick, Patrice. They each did it differently but they all worked so hard.
‘I achieved quite a few things but I didn’t do more because – I won’t say I was weak – but I was not brave enough. I never played free.
‘My brother was different. He went for the shirt. But maybe I never felt I was really equal to the others.’
The Da Silva twins are only 31 and have some playing time ahead of them. Fabio is currently back in the Nantes first team.
Beyond that, they may coach. The vague plan is for Rafael, already doing his badges, to be manager and his brother his assistant.
The football has been fundamental to the last 20 years but, perhaps more than that, it is the journey they have made together that they value.
When Fabio left United for QPR a week shy of his 22nd birthday, it was the first time the two of them had ever been apart.
All of which begs the question: would one of them ever have contemplated coming to United without the other?
‘It’s very hard to say,’ replied Fabio. ‘Once, my brother had some trials while I was with the national team under 15s. Even for two weeks apart, it was very difficult for us.’
During his spell at Cardiff, Fabio would regularly drive 200 miles to Manchester to see Rafael, often with his heavily pregnant wife.
To this day, a shared purpose remains. To provide for their parents back home, to make them proud. They were housekeepers as the boys grew up, working seven days a week. To repay and care for them has always been the focus.
‘Every time we played together in the United team my dad and mum were nearly crying,’ smiled Fabio.
‘Where we come from, if you went there you would realise how incredible it was for us to do what we did. It was all about getting out, to help our mum and dad. To stop them working.
‘If you had told us back then that all this would happen in our life, we would say no. Everything we did is incredible. We never dreamed of any of this.’
Both twins think the modern United will be OK under Solskjaer.
‘He will need a title win, though,’ laughed Fabio.
The current United manager was part of the effort to integrate the young Brazilians back in 2008 and they have not forgotten that. Some things, though, they always did their own way.
After they became first-team players for example, the twins were allocated their own rooms on away trips. Eventually, Ferguson was alerted to the fact that one of them was not being used.
‘We are simple boys,’ smiled Fabio. ‘We didn’t need two rooms. They were massive! So we used to share.
‘We are brothers. We wanted to be together. I love that story. It shows exactly who we are.’
-Daily Mail
Manchester United’s Harry Maguire struck a late header to seal a thrilling 2–1 Premier League victory over Liverpool on Sunday, ending their nine-year drought without a win at Anfield and dealing a blow to the reigning champions’ title chase.
Liverpool, who have lost four consecutive games across all competitions for the first time since November 2014, dropped to fourth in the table on 15 points, four behind leaders Arsenal.
United, who won back-to-back league games for the first time since manager Ruben Amorim was appointed last November, climbed to ninth with 13 points.
United’s Bryan Mbeumo stunned the home crowd with a goal a minute after kickoff when Amad Diallo pushed forward before flicking a ball for the forward to run onto and fire home from inside the box.
Irate Liverpool fans thought play should have been stopped before the goal with Alexis Mac Allister down clutching his head after a collision with teammate Virgil Van Dijk.
SQUANDERED CHANCES
Cody Gakpo hit the post three times before finally scoring the equaliser in the 78th minute, when he tapped in Federico Chiesa’s cross.
But Maguire sent United fans into a frenzy with the winner in the 84th when Bruno Fernandes floated the ball in for the big defender to outjump Ibrahima Konate and power home a header.
“It means everything,” Maguire told Sky Sports.
“They’ve had the better of us over the last few years and it’s not been good for our club and we’ve have not given our fans enough days like today. It’s been a long time coming, coming to this ground and picking up three points.
“I’ve been here seven years now and to come to this ground every time and not get three points has been tough. So it’s for the fans, I hope they have a great night tonight.
There were shouts for a Liverpool penalty early on when Casemiro’s cross struck Diallo’s arm. But the VAR video referee determined Diallo’s arm was in a natural and justifiable position.
Liverpool had 19 shots to United’s 12 including several jaw-dropping near misses.
‘SLOPPY’ LIVERPOOL
Gakpo was lively all game, hitting the post twice in the first half, and then nearly making it third time lucky when he smashed another shot off the post shortly after the break.
He missed a sitter in the dying minutes, however, when he headed the ball well wide of the net.
An off-form Mohamed Salah squandered a brilliant chance in the second half when the ball fell to him unmarked at the far post, but he launched it wide, his face etched with frustration.
“I think we conceded a very sloppy second goal,” said Reds captain Virgil van Dijk. “We worked so hard to get back into the game and we created great opportunities to score the winner but if you concede a second goal like that, that is the disappointing part.
“We need to stay humble and stay working and keep our confidence as high as possible,” he added. “When things get tough, it is important we keep the mentality of being there for each other. It is a long season.”
-Reuters
Manchester United’s under-pressure coach Ruben Amorim will be given the full three years of his contract to prove himself and the club will become the most profitable in the world, co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said on Wednesday.
Amorim was Ratcliffe’s choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November but the Portuguese coach has struggled to turn around the club’s flagging fortunes, winning only 10 of his 34 Premier League matches in charge.
United endured their worst top-flight finish last season since they were relegated in 1973–74, coming 15th, and they missed out on Europe after being beaten by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
But Ratcliffe has issued his strongest statement of support for Amorim yet, comparing the situation to when Alex Ferguson struggled in the early years of his reign before becoming the greatest manager in the club’s history.
“I remember the clamouring for Alex Ferguson to be fired in his first two years,” Ratcliffe, who owns 30% of the club and controls the football side of the business, told The Times’ podcast The Business. “You look at (Mikel) Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time for the first couple of years.
“We’re results-driven at the end of the day, but we have to be patient and we have to see through the results. I think there’s lots of good things at Manchester United. We have to be patient and we have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.
“Ruben needs to demonstrate that he’s a great coach over three years.”
‘WE’VE MADE ERRORS’
While the American Glazer family retain majority control of the 20-time champions of England, Ratcliffe rejected suggestions they could instruct him to sack Amorim.
“It absolutely wouldn’t happen because it’s just a good working relationship. They come to the board meetings. We sit down and we talk about things,” Ratcliffe said.
“We’ve made errors. There’s absolutely no question that we’ve made errors as we’ve gone along and we’ve talked about it. But no one’s perfect.”
Asked to confirm whether Amorim would see out his contract, Ratcliffe said: “Yes. That’s where I would be. Three years, because football’s not overnight.”
Despite United’s stock falling on the pitch, off it they recently posted record revenues of 666.5 million pounds ($892.1 million) in the year to June 2025, albeit with a 33 million pounds loss.
Amorim’s squad was boosted by more than 200 million pounds worth of new signings in the summer.
“The better your squad, the better your football should be. So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing,” Ratcliffe, who completed his acquisition of a minority stake in the club in 2024, said.
“If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest. We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League.
“Those numbers will get better. Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view, and from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high-level of football.”
Ratcliffe also said he wants to revive the club’s Academy that once churned out the likes of multiple title winners David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville.
“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United,” Ratcliffe said. “You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United cruised to a rare comfortable home Premier League victory as goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko secured a 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
With the pressure growing on manager Ruben Amorim after a disappointing start to the season, Mount calmed the nerves around the ground with a fine early finish to break the deadlock.
United continued to dominate, with a spectacular save from Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs preventing Bruno Fernandes from adding a sumptuous second before Sesko netted his first Old Trafford goal after 31 minutes.
Sunderland were awarded a penalty late in the first half, a decision that was overturned following a VAR intervention, but they never really threatened after the break as United eased to a third home league victory of the season.
The result put United in provisional eighth place with 10 points from seven games, two places below Sunderland on 11.
Wins, especially comfortable ones, have been in short supply for Portuguese Amorim since he took charge in November.
United supporters have slowly started to turn on the new manager as a result, with nothing short of victory over promoted Sunderland, despite the visitors’ impressive start to the season, enough to appease the disgruntled masses.
Mount’s superb control and finish was just what the beleaguered boss needed. The fine strike was the earliest United have scored in the Premier League since Marcus Rashford’s goal at Ipswich Town in Amorim’s first game in charge.
It was only a matter of time until the hosts scored again, such was their dominance. From a long throw, Sesko was alert to the flick-on before steering home his second in as many games.
United thought they had shot themselves in the foot as Sesko was penalised for a high boot in his own penalty area, only for VAR to deem it not to be a foul.
The hosts took their foot off the gas in the second half, but still should have added to their tally, with veteran Brazilian Casemiro blazing their best chance over the bar.
Sunderland did manufacture a late gilt-edged chance but Senne Lammens, making his debut in the United goal, stood tall to block, completing an assured performance from the keeper and his new teammates.
-Reuters
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