Fabio Silva spoke with the Scottish media for the first time on Friday and couldn’t get through the press call without eulogising over one Rangers star.
The Portuguese attacker is getting to know his new Ibrox teammates as the the first-team squad are put through their paces by Philippe Clement and his coaching staff in La Manga.
Rangers are in Spain amid the Scottish Premiership’s winter break and face Hertha Berlin today in a closed-door friendly encounter. They will then fly back to Glasgow and face FC Copenhagen on Tuesday to round-off their preparations before their Scottish Cup trip to Dumbarton.
Silva will be eager to feature in that tie and beyond as he aims to impress the Rangers faithful and contribute to what is hopefully a terrific second half of the season.
The on-loan Wolves man is a £35m player, the sum his parent club paid Porto for him back in 2020. It was at the Estadio do Dragao club where he made a name for himself and created some incredible early memories.
But he did face Rangers during his time at Porto and that particular game at Ibrox in 2019 wasn’t very incredible for the youngster. It was in the Europa League as Alfredo Morelos and Steven Davis both netted to secure a 2-0 group stage win.
Silva touched on that time with the press in La Manga, before going on to wax lyrical about James Tavernier after revealing he met with the Rangers captain following that 2-0 defeat in Govan.
Fabio Silva on ‘legend’ James Tavernier
Fabio Silva recalled, as quoted in the Daily Record: “The memories of that game with Porto for me are not so good because we lost that game – but I do remember that the environment at Ibrox is something special. When I found out that Rangers was an option for me, I told my family that when I played here with Porto, the atmosphere was crazy.
“I came on as a substitute in that game. It was good because after that I started to play a little but more for Porto. I remember meeting James Tavernier after that game because we had to do the doping control after the match.
“I don’t remember what we said so much. That game was, what, four or five years ago? But of course, Tav is an amazing player. He scores so many goals from right back. He’s a legend. Morelos stands out too. He was on fire that night.”
