The atmosphere experienced at Benito Villamarín last Saturday was reminiscent of other times at Betis. Alavés’ 1-3 score felt like a shot to the Andalusian fans, who responded with harsh chants against the board of directors, chaired by Ángel Haro and José Miguel López Catalán, and the footballers. After a seven out of 27 points in the League and eliminated from the Copa del Rey after a resounding win by Barcelona (5-1), Betis is in crisis. And in the face of the crises, the council has reacted with the signing of Antony, an international striker for Brazil from Manchester United, who arrives on loan until the end of the season and without a purchase option. The attacker plans to pass medical tests this Saturday in Seville and sign his contract. Betis plays in Mallorca (2:00 p.m.; Movistar LaLiga). On Thursday, Antony was on the bench during United’s Europa League match against Rangers (2-1). Rúben Amorim, the coach of the English team, decided to give the green light to the player’s departure after the United directors assured him of the arrival of a replacement. It is a historic entity that is going through a bad moment, outside the Champions League and 13th in the Premier.
Betis is betting on a high-level footballer, although he has declined in the last two seasons. At 24 years old, Antony tries out in Spanish football after an explosion at Ajax that caused United to sign him for 95 million euros in the summer of 2022. The Andalusian club has fought with Villarreal for the signing of the forward and will pay nearly two million for these five months. If the Andalusian club gets into Europe or wins the Conference League, it will have to pay a series of bonuses to United. Likewise, the English team has placed a clause by which Antony must play a number of games with Betis. If they do not do so, the English club must be compensated. “He is a high-level footballer that we can bring in as a market opportunity,” Betis clarified to this newspaper. A footballer who must provide speed, overflow and goals to a team ravaged by injuries and without many variants in attack.
Antony grew up in the Favela do Inferninhoknown for drug trafficking and in the suburbs of São Paulo. He made his debut for São Paulo in 2019 and just a year later he was signed by Ajax. In the Netherlands, the traditional host country for Brazilian footballers before playing in the big leagues, he had two great seasons, playing 82 games and scoring 24 goals. Manchester United signed him in 2022 in exchange for 95 million euros, the second most expensive operation in the history of the English club. Antony played in the World Cup in Qatar, sponsored by Dani Alves and Neymar, with Brazil, but his shining star has faded in recent seasons. The attacker won the gold medal with the Brazilian team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in the summer of 2021 due to the pandemic).
This season, for example, he has only played 14 games in all of United’s competitions, scoring only one goal in the League Cup. Antony is a signing that has the approval of Manuel Pellegrini, the Green and White coach, and must make a leap in quality to a squad from which two players have left in the current winter market. These are the cases of goalkeeper Rui Silva, transferred to Sporting de Portugal, and Assane Diao, sold to Como coached by Cesc Fábregas. For both operations, Betis has received close to 16 million euros.
