Manchester United fans, if you didn’t love Rafael before today, that may change.
If you did, prepare to love him even more, if that’s possible.
The Brazilian right-back, who spent seven years at Old Trafford after being bought from Fluminense in 2008 by Sir Alex Ferguson alongside his brother Fabio, was sold by Louis Van Gaal in August of 2015.
Moving to Lyon in France, the now 26-year-old didn’t take long to get injured, suffering a hamstring injury the next month, which saw him sidelined until mid October.
As revealed in L’Equipe by the player in an interview on Tuesday, when he suffered the injury, he went directly to Lyon’s board and asked them to hold back his wages until he was fit again.
He simply refused to be paid if he didn’t play.
Explaining to Rafael that this was actually illegal, the club and the player came up with a plan, allowing the player to give his wages to Olympique Lyonnais’ charity (OL Fondation) and put his money to good use.
When presented with options, the full-back decided to use the money to pay for a robot that allows hospitalised children to communicate with players on match days, whether that is on the pitch or in the changing room.
Rafael said: “I like to play and I like to be paid for doing that, but I wasn’t playing… I’m happy to have done that for the kids, but it was good for me too. It helped me.”
There’s a reason why the Brazilian is loved wherever he goes, and Lyon fans are quickly realising why their Manchester United counterparts were so sad to see him leave Old Trafford last year.
