Manchester United fans (well, some of them anyway), still have a massive soft spot for hot-headed Brazilian full-back Rafael Da Silva.
We say hot-headed as his time on the pitch largely consisted of tough tackling and getting in Carlos Tevez's face, but it was quite obvious that he was quite a good bloke off the pitch.
He still remains a big fan of Manchester United despite being shown the door by Louis Van Gaal last year, but he will regularly show some love on Instagram for his former employer.
In the meantime, his current employers probably think he's a great bloke too, as while he has never enjoyed a consistent run in Lyon's first team, a remarkably generous gesture has come to light in an interview with L'Equipe, via Sporting Witness.
Shortly after arriving at Lyon, Rafael became injured and faced a lengthy spell on the sidelines. The Brazilian then informed the club that he did not wish to be paid while injured.
Lyon then informed him that this was illegal, they had to pay him a salary while injured, and so an agreement was arranged that Rafael's wages would be paid to the club's charity, the OL Foundation. The money raised from Rafael's wages was enough to buy a robot for allows sick children to communicate with Lyon players on match days.
When asked about the gesture, Rafael explained his reasons and claimed that he did it for himself as much as the kids because he did not feel at ease with being paid for not playing.
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.
We can't think of too many footballers who would act the way Rafael did there, the humility shown is unprecedented.
Top marks for Mr. Da Silva, if United fans didn't love him enough already, then this will remind them. He could never be accused of not caring for the club, despite his fondness for picking up an early yellow card.
