Rafael and Fabio da Silva have been extremely impressive in their time at Manchester United, proving to be a lot more than the gimick some of us (including myself) half expected them to be.

Fabio’s shoulder injury kept him out of the first team, whilst Rafael competed with Gary Neville for the starting spot at right-back, and won! His goal against Arsenal was just a taster of what he is capable of.

This week, Fabio scored a hat-trick whilst playing as a left-back for the Reserves, proving again just how able he is. He came from Brazil as the more highly rated of the pair and there is great anticipation over seeing them both bombing down our wings.

However, the twins have today revealed that when they were teenagers at Fluminense, a man claiming to be an Arsenal scout tried to convince the pair to go to London without informing the club, with the intention of signing for Arsenal.

“We were not too happy with the way he approached us,” said Rafael. “The scout said he was from Arsenal and invited us to come and train. At that time we had already been to see Manchester United and train once with our club’s permission. But this man wanted to take us to England and say nothing to Fluminense. We disagreed with that principle. Fluminense was where we started, we had been there for years and they looked after us.”

Fabio also wasn’t best pleased with the situation but confirmed it was their mum who had the last word on the situation.

“It was upsetting,” he added. “We could have signed there and then and taken all the money and Fluminense would have got nothing. But our mother said ‘No, Fluminense have been good to you. You went there when you were 11. I want you to do everything right’. So we said we would sign for Manchester as it would be the best thing for us and Fluminense. So we signed and ignored the man pushing Arsenal.”

This scout has not been named though and there is no confirmation that he was working for Arsenal.

Oh Rafael da Silva, he comes Brazil, he tackles hard, he’s fast as fuck and he’s got bags of skill. He signed for Man United to play down our right wing, and if he’s ever injured then we’ll play his fucking twin… Oh Fabio da Silva, he comes from Brazil, he tackles hard, he’s fast as fuck and he’s got bags of skill. He signed for Man United to play down our left wing, and if he’s ever injured then we’ll play his fucking twin… Oh Rafael da Silva……