Anthony will be one of the great figures in the World Cup in Qatar and after having attended to Ace to talk about the news of his club and the national team, he has published an article in The Players Tribune where he narrates the difficult situation he lived in his childhood, in one of the most violent places in Sao Paulo.
“I was born in hell. This is not a joke. For my European friends who don’t know, the favela where I grew up in Sao Paulo his name is Inferninho”, thus begins the publication of the 22-year-old player from Manchester Utd.
The Brazilian winger lived with his parents and violence and guns surrounded his home: “We were so used to seeing guns that it wasn’t even that scary anymore. It was just a part of everyday life. We were more afraid that the police would break down our door. One time, they broke into our house looking for someone and ran in screaming. They found nothing, of course.”
In this sense Anthony narrates one of the hardest moments of his childhood and that reflects the place where he grew up: “Once, on my way to school when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I found a man lying in the alley. Only he didn’t move. When I got closer, I realized that he was dead. In the favela, you get a little numb in some situations. There was no other way to go, and I had to go to school. So I closed my eyes and jumped on the corpse”.
However, Antony is happy for “having grown up in the wrong place but with the right people.” He thus tells how he began to approach the world of football: “I learned all the tricks of the” brabos “. Ronaldinho, neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo. I saw it on YouTube, thanks to my “uncle” Toniolo. He is not my blood uncle. He was our next door neighbor. But he treated me like one of the family. When he was little, he let me use his Wi-Fi so I could go on YouTube and learn from the best.”
Antony also reflects on his main goals in life, which he has already achieved at an early age: “If you talk to the media, they always ask you about your dreams. The Champions League? The world Cup? The gold ball? But these are not dreams. 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.”
Finally, the international for Brazil comments how when he jumps onto a pitch there is no pressure for him: “I don’t feel pressure on the field. Without fear. Fear? What is fear? When you grow up having to jump over dead bodies just to get to school, you can’t be afraid of anything in football.. The things I saw most football experts can only imagine. There are things that stand out and you can’t get them out of your head”.
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Antony: “I closed my eyes and jumped on the corpse”