Belonging in the Betis Sun
From punchline to protagonist, Antony's revival in the south of Spain is a reminder of what football can still be.
“We need to crowdfund so he can stay at least another year.” Isco said it with a grin but meant every word. A throwaway line, maybe. But listen closely and you’ll hear something else. He was talking, of course, about Antony after the duo helped Real Betis to their first win over Sevilla in La Liga in seven years.
Oh, how the tables turn. Take yourself back to this time last year and the idea of crowdfunding, as in very seriously asking people to contribute money, to keep Antony at your club would’ve been the punchline of all punchlines, meme fodder at its very best.
But Isco’s words – said with a laugh but dead serious in meaning – are a beautiful reflection of how important Antony has become to Betis.
In just over two short months, the Manchester United loanee has helped completely change the fortunes of Betis, who enjoyed a long-awaited victory in the Seville derby last Sunday – their first since 2018.
After the final whistle blew on Sunday, the Betis players stood back on the pitch to embrace their fans, to bask in the achievement of something that had been seven years building but felt much longer. The fans loved it, every single moment filled with cheers and an elation that has eluded the Benito Villamarin for quite some time.
The players stayed out long after the match had ended. The fans did too. Nobody wanted to leave, except Sevilla, of course, who were long gone by then, not that they had shown up all that much to begin with.
Amidst the celebrations, Antony stood near the edge of the pitch, his shirt long strewn off, somewhere deep in the crowd by now. In its place, a massive Betis flag clutched tight in his hands, waving back and forth like a boy who’d won a raffle and a revolution. Football’s undesignated anthem Freed From Desire rang out across the ground, that unofficial hymn of chaos and catharsis.
And there he was – his smile wide and real – soaking it all in.
This was a moment. The smile on his face was genuine, an earnest expression perhaps of a feeling that he has missed since his days in Brazil.
But look closer, before the grin, and you’ll see something else. A flicker, a shadow passing across his face like a cloud over sunlit grass. Fleeting and threadbare, as if in contemplation, he continued waving the flag, backed slowly towards the stands as the noise rose loud first and louder still.
There was a thought there. What it was, perhaps we’ll never know. But the expression on his face told the story of a boy, who after some years of taunting, of disbelief, of rotten luck and some self-induced ridicule, finally felt something. He looked too like someone who’d waited a long time to feel this way.
Perhaps he felt love from the Villamarin stands. Perhaps he felt a level of appreciation, of value for him as a player and a person simply as he is today. Perhaps he felt, for the first time in some time, that he belongs. And at a club like Betis, how could he not?
Manu Fajardo, the club’s sporting director, said it plainly just a few days before the derby: “At Betis, we work on devalued players.” Those down-on-their-luck lads who “have reached very high moments and peaks, but who for various reasons have significantly decreased their performance.”
You don’t have to look far to see it. Isco – football’s great revivalist – called Betis “his light in the darkness.” At a club that rescued him from six months away and persistent rumours of retirement, Isco has not been redefined or rediscovered, but simply resuscitated, those famous green and white stripes casting a gentle spell on a player who’s always had a little magic of his own.
Antony too has revived himself. In the Premier League, he was something of a caricature, the hard-hitting punchline in the very loud joke that is Manchester United (England’s biggest circus and their sixth-biggest clown, etc.) He was iced out from the squad and rightfully so, considering how little he impacted the game every time he was brought on.
At Betis the story is a bit different. He has become important, needed since his very first day.
“In Antony’s case. he has performed immediately since minute one,” Fajardo added. It’s true too. Three consecutive man-of-the-match displays started his career in Seville and since then, he has grown to not only be spectacular, but essential – always alive down the right, a constant outlet, a blazing hum of intent and invention.
“He has changed us,” Isco said after the derby. On Sunday, after all the celebrations had been had and the fans had rejoiced, the pair sat in the dressing room, beers in hand, commemorating a win that felt like much more. There was joy there, not just from triumph over a rival or three important points, but from meaning something to someone again.
“Making people happy is what this sport is for,” said Isco. And isn’t it?
Antony has spoken of all this too. Of what it means to feel valued again, to feel happy. To breathe new air, clear of Manchester fog. “Each day, I realize joining Real Betis was the best decision I made.” There’s a clarity in his voice when he says it. “I have found myself here,” he added.
And so it begs the question: what do footballers want?
The answer is money, of course. Careers are short and contracts matter. But look at Antony’s face after the final whistle in the derby and you see something wages can’t buy. A sense of fulfillment, of freedom and peace. That slow, priceless slide from anonymity to affection.
As Antony has now learnt, Seville isn’t Manchester, and thankfully so. The sun, the food, the culture, the people, all so vastly different yet so dearly familiar. This is a place that will undoubtedly feel more like home to Antony. And Betis, as a club, offer a precious footballing rarity: a second chance.
But, as they say and for good reason, you should never fall in love with a loan player. Betis have though, and Antony, you suspect, has fallen right back, which makes what comes next both beautiful and brutal.
There are obstacles to overcome now if Antony is to continue his stay in Seville beyond the end of this season, as you sense he might want to. As Isco half-jokingly pointed out, cash-strapped Betis simply don’t have the money to make a permanent deal happen. United would reportedly require a total sum somewhere in the region of £35 million to break even. Betis might struggle to offer half of that, and even if they could, Antony would have to cut his wages significantly.
But sometimes, not often and not at once, logic can be defeated by love. Or at least, by a well-timed Gofundme campaign by a hopeful Betis fan entitled “Helping Real Betis make Antony a Green and White GOAT” that will almost certainly work (kudos, Guillermo).
In place of the hefty wages he earns at United, what Betis can offer is far less tangible but infinitely more valuable. They offer minutes that matter. A manager who doesn’t just understand Antony’s game, but encourages it, nurtures it. A team that believes in him, plays for him, with him. And a fanbase that doesn’t merely tolerate him. They treasure him.
It’s a redemption arc that feels that feels as fragile as it does glorious. A permanent move would be the fairytale ending, but the dream could just as easily dissolve the moment the season ends; the bubble burst, the curtain drawn, with Betis and Antony left to simply wonder what might have been.
It is clear now though that he is unwanted in Manchester and deeply wanted in Seville. Such is the comical nature of this game. For a deal to go through, United may have to fall back once more on their daft but dependable “buy high, sell low” philosophy. Betis will have to scrape together as much cash as they can while battling the heavy padlocks of La Liga financial fair play. And as for Antony, he will have to pour everything into these final months, clinging to the hope that this fleeting dream might just become something permanent.
The deal won’t be easy, for either Betis or United. But if the early signs are anything, this feels like one of those rare occasions where it all might just be worth it.