Fábio Pereira da Silva

Fábio

Fábio playing for Cardiff City in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Fábio Pereira da Silva
Date of birth	(1990-07-09) 9 July 1990 (age 26)
Place of birth	Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position	Full-back
Club information
Current team	Middlesbrough
Number	2
Youth career
2005–2008	Fluminense
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2008–2014	Manchester United	22	(1)
2012–2013	→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)	21	(0)
2014–2016	Cardiff City	65	(1)
2016–	Middlesbrough	15	(0)
National team‡
2007	Brazil U17	13	(10)
2011	Brazil	2	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12:32, 11 March 2017 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 November 2011

Fábio Pereira da Silva (born 9 July 1990), commonly known as Fábio or Fábio da Silva, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a full-back for English Premier League club Middlesbrough and the Brazil national team. He and his twin brother Rafael began their careers with Fluminense in their native Brazil before being signed by English club Manchester United in February 2007. Unlike his brother, Fábio struggled to hold down a place in the Manchester United first team, and after a loan spell with Queens Park Rangers in 2012–13, he made a permanent move to Cardiff in January 2014.

Fábio was born in Petrópolis, approximately one hour's drive away from Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro state, and began playing football from the age of five. He and his identical twin, Rafael, would play five-a-side in the city. They were then spotted by a representative of Fluminense, who gave them the opportunity to play for the club; they went to live at the club's training center at Xerém when they were just 11 years old.

Fábio began his football career as a defensive midfielder with his local club, Boa Esperança, but he was converted to left back when he joined Fluminense of Rio de Janeiro. With Fluminense, Fábio took part in the 2005 Nike Premier Cup in Hong Kong, where he 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 Alex Ferguson and recommended that the club sign the Da 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.