‘I feared the worst when Man Utd star hit Sir Alex Ferguson in the balls but I was wrong’

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Former Manchester United midfielder Anderson once playfully struck Sir Alex Ferguson in the groin and the iconic manager's response left his squad stunned. The story emerged from ex-United defender Rafael da Silva , who was appearing on Zona Mista.

Rafael and his twin brother, Fabio, signed for United in 2008 aged 17 from Brazilian side Fluminense. Speaking on the programme, the 35-year-old revealed how Ferguson actually found the incident amusing.

He said: "Ferguson was really crazy about Anderson. There was this one time when everyone was in the lift, and just as Anderson was about to look at him... 'sack tap'. I thought, 'Oh my god, the old man's going to lose it now.' Everyone was just frozen, thinking, 'This is going to be a disaster.'

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"Then Ferguson started laughing, and everyone else started laughing. On the way down to a match, out of the blue, he did this. The guys panicked. 'This is going to be a disaster.'"

Anderson, who arrived at United for £20million from Porto in 2007, proved somewhat of a puzzle during his Old Trafford career.

Rafael has previously suggested that the midfielder might have become the finest player on the planet were it not for his fondness for fast food. Beyond fitness concerns, there were issues surrounding the player's weight and eating habits.

Rafael, in his autobiography, recalled: "We could be on the team coach and pass the services on the motorway and Anderson would jump up impulsively and yell, 'McDonald's, McDonald's.'

"The guy was crazy, but I love him. Give him a football and he would just play with freedom and sometimes, if he got a good run of games, he could play as well as any player in the league. He picked up a lot of big injuries and then his problems with eating the way he did started to affect him.

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"I will say something about Anderson – if he had been a professional football player, he could have been the best in the world . I'm saying this was all serious. I don't know if he ever took anything seriously. He just loved life in such an easy and casual way."

Anderson featured 181 times across eight seasons at the club, netting just twice, before his departure under former United manager Louis van Gaal in 2015 saw him return to Brazil with Internacional. He hung up his boots in September 2020 following a stint with Turkish side Adana Demirspor.

While Fabio managed only 56 outings for United, Rafael featured more regularly with 170 appearances. The pair proved popular at United, though Fabio remembered how Ferguson frequently struggled to distinguish between them.

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Speaking on The United Zone podcast this year, Fabio shared an incident where the legendary Scot furiously mixed up the twins.

He revealed: "My brother did something wrong in the game and he came at half time to speak with him but came to me. He started to shout f**k off! Rio [Ferdinand] or [Michael] Carrick said this is not Rafael and he [Ferguson] said, 'f**k off they're the same!'"

Rafael represented United from 2008 to 2015, before moving to Ligue 1 outfit Lyon after clinching three Premier League titles. He exited the club after losing favour with Van Gaal. Fabio left United in 2014 for QPR and had stints with Cardiff , Middlesbrough, Nantes and Gremio before hanging up his boots.