Antony, the Manchester United star who grew up jumping over corpses and dreams of being the star in Brazil

Anthonyahead of Manchester Utd by Erik ten Hag, is going to contest the Qatar World Cup 2022 with the Brazilian team. But as the 22-year-old adjusts his dribbling and pace for the biggest national team tournament on the planet, a little-known part of his story has come to light.

Although his present is unbeatable, it was not all the happiness in the striker’s life that cost him 95 million euros to the English club at the end of August, when he arrived from Ajax in the Netherlands.

Antony Matheus Dos Santos was born on February 24, 2000 in Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil. He grew up in a difficult environment. He explained it himself in a letter published by the site The Players Tribune. “I was born in hell“, said the left-handed man who knew how to wear the Ajax Amsterdam shirt.

“No joke. For my European friends who don’t know, the favela where I grew up in São Paulo is actually called Inferninho, ‘little hell’. If you really want to understand me as a person, then you need to understand where I’m from. My story. My roots,” she added.

Antonio should have fought him long before he dodged rivals in the Premier League. In the precarious settlement where he grew up, he had to face difficult situations that marked him forever: “Fifteen steps from our front door there were always drug dealers going about their business, passing from hand to hand. window,” he reminded him.

The relationship with drugs and weapons was the order of the day in the “little hell” of San Pablo. “We were so used to seeing guns that it wasn’t even scary. They were just a part of everyday life. We were more afraid of the police breaking down our door. Once, they invaded our house looking for someone and ran away screaming ,” She said. .

The young man from São Paulo recounted his difficult childhood with an anecdote that is difficult to digest: “One morning on my way to school, when I was about 8 or 9, I met a man lying in the alley. Don’t move. When I got closer, I realized he was dead.. In the favela you become a little numb to these things. There was no other way to go and I had to go to school. So I closed my eyes and jumped on the corpse“.

But in such a hostile environment, his escape was to do magic with the ball: “The ball was my salvation. My love since the cradle. At Inferninho we are not interested in Christmas toys. Any ball that rolls is perfect for us.”

When Antonio had “a ball at his feet” he lost the center. However, life presented another major challenge for him at the age of 11 when his parents separated. “It was the hardest moment of my life, because at least we all knew each other before. Now, I would turn to my mother’s bedside in the middle of the night and she would walk away. It was devastating.”

“If you talk to the media, they always ask you about your dreams. The Champions League? The World Cup? The Ballon d’Or? Those aren’t dreams. Those are goals. My only dream was to get my parents out of the favela. There was no “plan b”. I was going to make it or die trying“.

At 14, he gets a test at San Paolo and enters the lower ranks of the Brazilian giant: “Every day, after school, he went to the academy on an empty stomach.. Sometimes, if it was a good day, my teammates and I would pool money to buy a cookie for the bus ride home. I didn’t have to pretend I was hungry for motivation. the hunger was real“.

The “blood in his eyes” with which he approached football helped him get off the ground quickly. He made his debut in the First Division on 15 November 2018 against Gremio. “People think I’m lying when I tell them this, but even after my professional debut with San Pablo, I was still living in the favela. No, no, that’s the truth, at 18 I was still sleeping in bed with my father. Either that or the couch!” she said.

The rest is history, Antony went to Ajax Amsterdam at the beginning of 2020 for 15.76 million euros plus six other variables. His right climbs, his hooks, his speed and his excellent technique made him shine in the Eredivisie.

​On 30 August 2022 he arrived at Manchester united from 95 million euros plus five variables. Antony went from the hell of Brazil to the Teatro dei Sogni, without stopping. And now he will have the opportunity to shine at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.