Antony\u2019s career took a marked turn after a difficult spell at Manchester United, with his loan to Real Betis sparking a clear on-field revival. Signed on loan for the second half of last season, he was an immediate influence and was voted MVP in each of his first two outings in green and white, having managed just one Player of the Match award across 62 Premier League appearances.<\/p>\n
Under Manuel Pellegrini the forward found space and freedom. He finished the campaign with nine goals and five assists as Betis secured sixth place in La Liga and advanced to the Conference League final. Betis captain Marc Bartra has been among the loudest admirers. “For me, he has that Brazilian quality and talent,” Bartra gushed to MundoBetis. “I always say he\u2019s a bit of a mix of Neymar and Cristiano: that Cristiano mentality of always striving for more and being incredibly focused.” <\/p>\n
Those comparisons will resonate with Antony, who has long cited the La Liga greats among his inspirations. “The art of Ronaldinho and Cristiano and Neymar inspired me as a child,” he told The Players\u2019 Tribune in 2022. “I watched these Gods in amazement on stolen WiFi, then I went out to the concrete pitch to try to imitate their genius.”<\/p>\n
Bartra attributes part of Antony\u2019s transformation to a shift in environment and mentality. “I also remember it very well from my experience when I came from [Borussia] Dortmund. I arrived in the winter, and it was like a shot of something special, a feeling of respect and affection from minute one.<\/p>\n
“I saw him the same way, in that win-win situation, you could say. Betis won with him, and he won with Betis.<\/p>\n
“I felt very connected to him, and on top of that, you could see that the team has a wonderful group of people who give you your space, your place, make you feel good, and have fans who love them.”<\/p>\n
Antony\u2019s time at Old Trafford had begun with early goals, including strikes in each of his first three Premier League appearances, but produced only two more goals over the following three years. His stint in England was also overshadowed by allegations of domestic abuse that emerged in September 2023; Antony denies all accusations. “I think that, apart from my football life, my personal life got in the way a lot, because of the things I went through, the moments I lived there,” he explained to ESPN Brasil last season. “Like it or not, it\u2019s affected me a lot.”<\/p>\n
A return to Betis in the summer followed, despite reports of a more lucrative move to Bayern Munich, and Antony explained his motivation plainly: “I always look at happiness first, and I was very happy here,” he said when explaining why he opted to return to Betis in the summer despite being supposedly offered a more lucrative move to Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Antony has rediscovered form at Betis, praised as a blend of Neymar flair and Cristiano focus. anew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1163],"tags":[1081,226,1215],"class_list":["post-4529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-transfers","tag-adaptation","tag-antony","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}