Three women have alleged they were assaulted by Antony, who has been dropped by the Brazil national team amid an investigation by the authorities in his home country and Greater Manchester Police.
He strongly denies the allegations from his ex-girlfriend, Gabriela Cavallin, Rayssa de Freitas and Ingrid Lana, and gave a TV interview in Brazil on Friday night to put his side of the story.
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You can read about the claims Antony is facing here, but who is the 23-year-old Manchester United winger?
The Athletic traces Antony’s career, from a favela in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to a €100million (£85.9m; $107.1m) player for Manchester United.
Antony grew up in Osasco, one of the municipalities that have been absorbed by the sprawling city of Sao Paulo over the years. It is not the most prosperous area: Antony lived in a favela known to locals as ‘Inferninho’ — Little Hell — and has spoken about the omnipresence of of drug dealers on the streets.
Writing on The Players’ Tribune, Antony said that he once encountered a dead body on the way to school. “In the favela, you become kind of numb to these things,” he wrote. “There was no other way to go (…). So I just closed my eyes and jumped over the dead body.”
Football, as it does for so many young Brazilians, provided a path out. Antony honed his skills on the street at first, often playing with his older brother, then moved onto the indoor futsal court when he was spotted by the director of a local team. At 14, he joined the academy at Sao Paulo FC, the club he had always supported.
The Sao Paulo academy is one of the most respected in Brazil. Previous graduates include Cafu, Kaka, Casemiro and Eder Militao. Antony was not always seen as a future star — some coaches felt he lacked physical strength — but gradually carved out a space for himself. By 2018, when he made his first-team debut, he was being tipped to follow in the footsteps of fellow wingers Lucas Moura and David Neres, both of whom made high-profile moves to Europe early in their careers.
“His strengths were his technique, his finishing ability and his understanding of the game,” Junior Chavare, the former head of the Sao Paulo academy, told The Athletic last year. “We worked a lot on the physical side of his game, but I was certain that he could develop a lot.
“Every time he stepped onto the field, he showed huge personality. He really sought out responsibility. I thought he had the quality to play for a top European team.”
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At the start of 2019, Antony was named the best player at the Copinha — Brazil’s most prestigious youth tournament and a Mecca for scouts from around the world — and carried that form into the Sao Paulo state championship, putting in a series of sparky performances and scoring in the final against Corinthians. After he represented his country at the Toulon Tournament in France (Brazil took the title and Antony scored in the final), the vultures began to circle.
“Clubs were always asking about him,” said Alexandre Passaro, Sao Paulo’s former director of football, last year. “We had so many scouts come to watch him play.
“But at that early stage, it’s difficult to marry your interests with the interests of clubs abroad. A lot of the time, they can see the potential of a player but don’t want to pay for it. They want to pay for the player as he is at that moment, and we want to sell the potential. Sometimes that means there’s a big difference between the valuations.”
In the dressing room, too, there was a feeling that Antony was a real talent. “He has gigantic potential,” was the assessment of his coach at the time, Fernando Diniz, who said that the teenager had “everything it takes to be one of the great attackers in world football”. One team-mate, Pablo, called him “a phenomenon”. Another, the former AC Milan and Brazil striker Alexandre Pato, was similarly emphatic. “If he goes to Europe, I’m sure he will explode,“ he said. ”He’s an exceptional talent.“
By the end of 2019, Antony was widely seen as one of the best players in Brazil. The teenager was also a father, his wife having given birth to a baby boy.
“At the start it was very difficult,“ Antony later explained. ”I didn’t want to be a dad. I was young and things were starting to happen in my career. It was complicated. (But) I started to come to terms with it. I knew that I would have more responsibility. I went from being an adolescent to being a man, an adult. The responsibility goes up a level when you have a child to raise.”
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In February 2020, Antony signed for Ajax for an initial fee of €16million (now £13.7m; $17.1m). He appeared in his last game for Sao Paulo the following month and was presented in Amsterdam in July. Ajax marked his arrival by asking Neres and fellow Brazilian player Danilo to record a rap in his honour.
Antony made a fast start to life in the Eredivisie, scoring seven league goals in his first 14 matches, including winners against Vitesse and Sparta Rotterdam. Never prolific previously, he put the improvement down to the tactics of his coach, Erik ten Hag, whose system allowed him to receive the ball closer to goal. He also underwent a physical transformation, adding seven kilograms (15lbs) of muscle during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Not all South American players take the move to Europe in their stride, but Antony seemed to. “Pressure? Pressure is when you live in the favela, when you go to school at nine in the morning and only eat a meal at nine at night,“ he told Brazilian outlet Globo. ”Beyond that, we adapt quickly.”
At the end of a promising first season in the Netherlands, Antony went to the delayed Tokyo Olympics with Brazil’s under-23s. He started every game and set up Malcom’s winning goal in the final against Spain. Two months later, he emulated Pele, Mario Zagallo and Neymar by scoring on debut for the senior Brazil side.
Antony’s displays in the 2021-22 Champions League only added to the sense of building momentum. Ajax won all six of their group games; the Brazilian netted two goals and set up four more. When he stated his desire to test himself in the Premier League, the idea did not seem far-fetched.
Antony was not universally loved in the Netherlands. Many were unconvinced by his decision-making and the frequency with which he gave the ball away. Others questioned his maturity. “This kind of boy cannot be tamed by a coach,” said former Netherlands forward Wim Kieft after Antony’s daft red card against Feyenoord in March 2022.
His most strident critic was Ajax icon Marco van Basten. He called Antony a “childish” footballer and questioned his consistency. “Antony has his skills, but he is confused with the things he is trying to do,” he said.
Ten Hag felt differently, however. After taking over at Manchester United in summer 2022, he made Antony a priority target and got his man just before the end of the transfer window. The fee — an initial €95million, rising to a potential €100m — put Antony among the 20 most expensive players of all time.
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Edwin van der Sar, the former United goalkeeper who sold Antony back to his old club as Ajax’s chief executive, said Old Trafford had acquired “a potential world star”.
There were flashes of such quality during his first season: he scored in his first three Premier League games — becoming the first Manchester United player to do so — but his over-reliance on his left foot brought a rebuke from former United midfielder Paul Scholes, who described him as “a bit of a one-trick pony”.
Antony, though, netted a dramatic Europa League winner against Barcelona, and started 39 matches in all competitions last season, underlining Ten Hag’s trust in him. “He is a fighter and he likes challenges,“ the Dutchman said in April.
Others were less convinced, however, feeling that Antony decorated matches more than he defined them.
That tendency was embodied by one piece of skill in the Europa League game against Sheriff Tiraspol, when Antony received a pass and pirouetted 720 degrees with the ball stuck to his left foot before overhitting a pass. It was a moment that drew ire from many observers, including Scholes.
“I just don’t think that is skill or entertainment,” he said. “That is just being a clown, isn’t it? If that’s his trademark, he needs a better one.”
Antony has been accused of play-acting (witness his dive in Brazil’s World Cup quarter-final exit against Croatia), and has occasionally shown a petulant streak.
The World Cup was not an entirely happy experience. After starting one match and coming off the bench in three others in Brazil’s run to the last eight, he told ESPN Brazil that the air-conditioning system in the stadiums in Qatar had made him ill.
At times for United, however, he has cut a frustrated figure, like in the game against Arsenal at the start of September, when team-mates repeatedly declined to find him on the right touchline.
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In other circumstances, you might class these as teething troubles, but that eye-catching transfer fee was always going to increase expectations and scrutiny. His club manager, though, has continued to back him — and pick him. Antony has started all four of Manchester United’s Premier League matches so far this season, despite the team’s indifferent form.
Asked on August 25 whether the allegations against Antony were a concern, Ten Hag said: “No. The outcome in Brazil was clear. He is doing a good pre-season, he is also scoring some goals. He is more often in the situations where he is a threat for the opposition. Also in the key moments, he is there where he should have been. Now he has to finish.
“In pre-season he scored two goals, also one assist. He is (in) a good direction, now he has to speed up, because for us good is not good enough. Don’t get distracted, focus on football and performing.”
(Top photos: Getty Images)
