Thursday, July 29, 2021 at 13:05• Rian Rosendaal • Last update: 13:18

In the run-up to their soon-to-be-released autobiography ‘The Sunshine Boys’, Rafael and Fabio da Silva, at the request of The Athletic extensively on their stint with Manchester United. The Brazilian fullbacks played together for several seasons with Wayne Rooney, among others, who told the brothers how Steven Gerrard viewed the right back and left back.

“Wayne Rooney told us Steven Gerrard really hated us,” recalls Rafael da Silva. “He told us that during England international matches Gerrard said about us: ‘Those twin brothers, they are really assholes’. We never did anything to him, but only wore a different shirt with a red color. Apparently that was enough for him. to hate us. And to be honest, I understood his feelings too, it was mutual too.”

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Fabio da Silva, now active for FC Nantes, experienced some difficult moments at Manchester United, especially in the early years. The tension in the halftime of a duel with Everton became so great that he even had to vomit. “That was really intense. The manager (Sir Alex Ferguson, ed.) even entered the toilet. I tried not to make a sound, but I know he saw and heard me. However, he didn’t want me to notice that he was me.” had noticed,” said the Brazilian defender, who finds it difficult to talk about such incidents.

“It’s not an easy subject,” sighs Fabio da Silva. “My brother also knows that I prefer not to talk about it because it was so difficult for me at the time. It’s a thing of the past now, but in Manchester there was certainly a short period where I ran into problems.” It was difficult for Rafael Da Silva to see his brother struggle like that at times. “It was hard for him to suffer. Those feelings were there with him because he is, how shall I say, too nice. Fabio always sees the good in people and never harms anyone. Sometimes he thought: If I play badly today, I will let my family and the supporters down.”

“Those negative thoughts really stayed in his head. While I know how well he can play football. He was just too concerned with what other people thought of him.” According to Fabio da Silva, his brother’s story is a bit more nuanced. “It was not about not wanting to hurt people, but more about the fact that I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. Especially because many people had expressed their confidence in us. So I set the bar too high for myself. Now that I’m on it Looking back I know I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t always easy, but you learn from it,” said the former Manchester United defender.