Daniel Tayloron Manchester United's twin defensive/attacking force, brothers Rafael and Fabio da Silva
EVERY SO often a footballer comes along who can make opponents feel old and spectators feel young. Usually it is a striker with an eye for the spectacular or a winger who can make traffic bollards of the most accomplished defenders, but rarely is it a defender. But then again Rafael da Silva is no ordinary full-back.
They do not make "typical" right-backs in Brazil. They dance to a different drum beat: fast, lithe, athletic flying machines such as Djalma Santos, Carlos Alberto Torres, Josimar and Cafu. Rafael da Silva, the latest kid on the block, is another who has been brought up to believe that the art of defending can be far more expansive than merely shutting down opponents and diving into tackles.
At 18, Rafael is the latest in a long production line, and the really exciting news for Manchester United is that his twin, Fabio, is considered every bit as good on the opposite side of defence.
"They remind me of two little whippets," said Les Kershaw, United's former academy manager who can be credited with spotting the Da Silvas playing for Fluminense at the 2005 Premier Cup in Tokyo.
"There are no wingers as such in Brazil and they all play a 4-2-2-2 formation. That means the full-backs have to tear up and down the wings. These two stood out straight away. What impressed me most was the way that, when they got knocked down, they just got straight back up again and got on with it. They were like bouncing balls . . . very, very quick. You didn't have to be a special scout to notice them. I rang the manager and said, 'There are twins here who are just unbelievable'."
A deal was quickly arranged with Fluminense, although the twins were not allowed to play in England until they had turned 18 and gained Portuguese passports, qualifying through their grandfather. The clearance came through this summer and Alex Ferguson immediately gave them squad numbers. Fabio has since been troubled by a shoulder injury and is recovering from surgery, but Rafael is threatening to supplant Gary Neville and Wes Brown on a permanent basis. "When a guy turns the corner you cannot do anything about it," said Ferguson.
"Potential" is a word Ferguson once claimed to dislike, referring to his formative days at Old Trafford and, specifically, his frustrations with Peter Barnes, a player he remembers attracting "all this talk about his potential, yet the guy was almost 30 years old".
In Rafael's case, however, Ferguson has not tried to play down the hype. "I feel the boy has something special," said the manager. "He has such character, and such talent, and great courage. He's got that Brazilian mentality where he wants to get on the ball all the time."
This was brought home to Ferguson in United's 1-1 draw at Celtic 10 days ago, when Rafael fouled Shaun Maloney in his first challenge and got a ticking-off from the referee. "The crowd reacted as though he had chopped the boy in two," Ferguson said with a laugh. "For 10 minutes the little lad was unsettled. But after that he was absolutely brilliant. I was delighted an 18-year-old could do that."
Raised in Petropolis, in the forested hills of the Serra dos Orgaos, Rafael started as a striker for his amateur club, Boa Esperanca. Fabio, meanwhile, was a defensive midfielder. But when they joined Fluminense the youth team coach converted them into full-backs.
The twins subsequently played for Brazil in the Under-17 World Cup last year in South Korea. "Trevor Brooking (the English Football Association's director of football development) saw them and thought they were unbelievable," Kershaw proudly reported.
Fabio, in particular, stood out, scoring twice as Brazil racked up 14 goals in their first three games. "I have absolutely no doubt at all that he will do the same for us as Rafael," added Ferguson.
Fabio has Patrice Evra to dislodge, which might take some doing. Yet Rafael has shown what can be done, starting four of the last eight matches, and is expected to keep his place against Stoke City today. He has also scored his first professional goal, a beautifully taken left-foot volley at Arsenal last Saturday.
"He grabbed the game," Ferguson reflected admiringly. "He turned us up a notch."
As Ferguson says, the boy is special.
The good ol' days are well and truly gone
ALEX FERGUSON reaches another personal milestone today when he makes it 50 years in the game, but, amid all the sepia-tinted memories, the oldest manager in the business found himself sidetracked last night by the very modern-day issue of a footballer not being satisfied with a weekly salary in excess of €140,000.
The player is Cristiano Ronaldo, whose management company, Gestifute, announced this week that the midfielder deserved an improved wage from Manchester United "that marks his performances on the field".
Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent, was in Manchester on Monday and, although reports of it being to instigate contract talks were inaccurate, a spokesman for Gestifute said it was reasonable to "predict a meeting" with United in the near future.
As Ferguson reminisced about his first match - on November 15th, 1958 - he seemed unimpressed that the subject of Ronaldo's pay should have resurfaced.
"I don't know what other clubs pay their players but Ronaldo is very well paid by us," he said. "At the moment he has three and a half years left on his contract and we are happy with that."
Ferguson revealed the contrast with his early playing days, when he combined football with working as an apprentice toolmaker and earned so little his family considered emigrating to Canada because of its "great trade".
Ferguson never came up against a team whose artillery included the cannonballs otherwise known as Rory Delap's long throw-ins. Stoke City are the visitors to Old Trafford today and Ferguson revealed his players had worked in training specifically to defend against the "formidable threat" of Delap.
"We can't dismiss the fact that it is an absolute threat to us," he said. "We've done some work on it, we've done some video analysis too, but it is another thing to try to stop it. I remember saying to my players against one team, 'Don't give corner-kicks away'. And the opposition got a corner-kick in the first minute and scored. So it's no good saying, 'Try to stop throw-ins', because it is impossible. There will be throw-ins and we will just have to deal with them the best we can."
