Ligue 1 Conforama will have its third pair of twins in recent history plying their trade their trade in France following the signature of Fabio, brother of OL's Rafael, with FC Nantes on Wednesday.
Just like his twin brother Rafael at Olympique Lyonnais, Fabio (28) plays at right-back, came up through the Fluminense youth academy and arrives in Ligue 1 Conforama by way of England (Middlesbrough). Now the Da Silva twins will once again play their football in the same league, having already done so as club-mates at Manchester United between 2008 and 2014. Fabio, who signed with Les Canaris for three seasons, will wear the number two shirt. The Brazilian, who is new Nantes boss Miguel Cardoso first recruit since taking over from Claudio Ranieri, notably represented Brazil in their run to the quarter-finals of the U17 World Cup in 2007.
Ligue 1 Conforama's third set of twins!
Fabio's signature means that this season the Da Silva twins - Fabio for Nantes and Rafael for OL - will have a set of twins. In recent history, there have been just two sets of twins in France's top flight: Zlatko and Zoran Vujovic, who both signed for Bordeaux in 1986-87 and won the French league title that same season. They played 68 Ligue 1 Conforama matches in the same team (61 with Bordeaux, seven with AS Cannes). On one occasion - Bordeaux's 3-0 win over Le Havre on 20 September 1986 - they both scored in the same Ligue 1 Conforama matches. They played against each other in France's top flight just once.
A few years later, the Argentine D'Amico brothers - Patricio (nine Ligue 1 Conforama matches, 83 in Domino's Ligue 2) and Fernando (103 Ligue 1 Conforama matches, 44 in Domino's Ligue 2) were the next set of twins to feature in France's first division. Fernando played for LOSC between 1999 and 2003 and then Le Mans form 2003 to January 2005, while his twin signed for FC Metz in 2001-02 before playing for Wasquehal and then Châteauroux in Domino's Ligue 2 (2003-2005). Thus they played in both Ligue 1 Conforama and Domino's Ligue 2 at the same time, but only faced off against each other once in the top flight, Fernando coming out on top as LOSC beat FC Metz 2-1 in Lille on 26 August 2000.