It all began in the ‘Little Hell’. That’s the name given to the favela where Antony grew up, in the north of Sao Paulo. It’s where the 23-year-old first learned his dribbling skills, the most striking characteristic of his game.
There, the Brazilian needed to dribble past foes far tougher than those he’s encountered on Premier League pitches so far. In the Little Hell – or Inferninho, to give the favela its Portuguese name – Antony saw people’s lives ruined by crime. His family, too, were facing their own issues.
“I saw a lot of people going down a path that wasn’t right, do you know what I mean?” he tells FourFourTwo now. “I saw people losing their lives – it was our reality back then. There were days when I didn’t have much to eat. My parents always did everything they could for us, but it was really tough. We starved, but we always kept our heads high. I had a dream and my family lived it with me.”
That dream was to become a footballer – and it ended up transforming his life. At the age of 11, he was invited for a trial at Sao Paulo, the same club he’d cheered on from the stands as a supporter. Unsurprisingly, the skinny boy drew attention for his skills on the ball and not only passed the test but stayed at the club for almost a decade, climbing through the age groups until he reached Sao Paulo’s first team in 2018. Antony no longer had to watch his heroes from the stands – he was beside them on the pitch.
After his first few. Those early performances caught Ajax’s attention, and by 2020 he was heading to Europe for two successful seasons in Amsterdam under Erik ten Hag, the man who brought him to Old Trafford last August.
