Former Manchester United full back Rafael Da Silva doesn’t turn 27 until summer.
With this in mind, you’d expect the Brazilian – now plying his trade in France with Lyon – to continue playing professional football for a good few more years.
So, when he decided to announce his retirement from football via his Twitter account on Saturday, most people realised that this was nothing more than an attempt at an April Fool…
https://twitter.com/orafa2/status/848223787107700736
Being twitter, there were a few people that were quick to give a blunt and slightly exaggerated assessment of his attempted prank…
Quite possibly the worst April Fools Joke ever
— Richie Haddad (@Richie_Haddad17) April 1, 2017
But not everyone realised that this was a joke. Take Davy here, who chose to reply to the tweet by reflecting on his time at Old Trafford…
To be fair, perhaps we should be a bit more lenient on Davy (and a few others) for thinking this retirement announcement was genuine. After all, it was made a at 6:21pm – more than six long hours after the UK deadline for April Fools’ jokes had passed.
Although this might have caused some confusion on these shores, it’s worth pointing out that in France, April Fools’ last all day. Perhaps tweeting in French might have avoided confusion…
Assuming Rafael hasn’t retired, there’s a chance he could face his old team before the season is out.
Manchester United and Lyon both remain in the Europa League. As United face a quarter final with Anderlecht, Lyon take on Besiktas for a place in the last four.
