Antony, Isco and the resurgences that could take Real Betis to European glory | OneFootball

“I went through difficult times,” Antony recalled during an interview with TNT Sports regarding his time at Manchester United. “I no longer felt that pleasure. I even always told my brother; I told him that I couldn’t take it anymore.”

He was one of Erik ten Hag’s first marquee signings at United, the headliner of a swathe of former Eredivisie stars who would be joining him at the dawn of a new era. That was all a mirage, because, as the old saying goes: ‘it’s always darkest before the dawn,’ and things at Old Trafford now look dimmer than ever before.

It would’ve been hard to foresee this reality while Antony was at the posterchild of his side’s struggles. He’d cost Ten Hag €95 million, a price tag which would soon turn to a target on his head.

By now, everybody knows the ignominy of the Brazilian’s time in the Premier League. His most productive season in England’s topflight saw him score four goals and make two assists. That was his debut campaign. In his next, those returns diminished to just two contributions. During the first half of the current campaign, he failed to contribute to a single goal in eight league appearances. He was lamented for being all bark, no bite. He became more meme than footballer, more caricature than person, as the toxic world of online football fandom mocked him relentlessly for every spin, every stance, every missed chance.

When Ten Hag’s time in Manchester ran out, him seemingly the final passenger on the Antony train, it only made sense that his winger, the very embodiment of the Dutchman’s tenure, would depart too. Ruben Amorim arrived and shared that view, and Real Betis came knocking.

By the time Antony did leave, it felt overdue. His confidence was seemingly at an all-time low, his value even lower, his rock bottom apparently reached. Then something strange happened.

In a little over three months in Andalusia, Antony has exploded. His record in La Liga reads five goals, two assists: seven contributions, more than any season in the Premier League and his best tally since playing for Ajax. What’s more, they haven’t just been ordinary goals.

Little did anyone know that his first strike, a finish delicately placed into the far corner against Celta Vigo, was just the tip of the iceberg. He followed that up with a thumping volley against Real Sociedad, sublime whip into the top corner against Espanyol, an unstoppable free kick against Fiorentina in the UEFA Conference League. Their keeper and former teammate of Antony David De Gea quipped that he’d never even seen Antony score with his right foot in training, but that’s exactly what he did when he cushioned a volley home against Girona.

It really is the Conference League in which he’s shone brightest. In just eight appearances, he has seven goal contributions there, too, the same as in the league. They might not have made it to their final against Chelsea without their reborn Brazilian spark in tow; he had a hand in three of the four goals in their semi-final against De Gea’s Fiorentina, including the assist which set up the winning goal in extra time.

And for every goal, he points to the tattoo on his neck. ‘Iluminado,’ it reads, or ‘enlightened,’ in English. As far as he’s concerned, his success and his resurgence has been gifted to him by a higher power, manifested in Seville.

He’s not the only one who’s benefitted from a move to the Estadio Benito Villamarín.

Once the European Golden Boy, Isco had the world at his feet. He was part of Manuel Pellegrini’s Málaga side which made the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2013. He was even their joint top scorer that season, a move to Real Madrid that summer his reward.

There, he was crowned a champion of Europe four times and won La Liga thrice. But, after falling out of favour following the departure of manager Zinedine Zidane and leaving Sevilla after a very short stint, his European career looked like it may have ended prematurely.

Until Betis. As he put it in an interview with The Athletic, “Betis has the best air there is,” when it comes to players recovering their careers. Isco himself, reunited with Pellegrini and two years into his career in green and white, has become club captain, been recalled to the Spain squad for the first time in six years, and led his side to their first ever European final.

They’re not the outliers, either. The Betis squad is one full of second-chancers, players whose heydays were in the mid-2010s, or so we thought. Héctor Bellerín, Marc Bartra, Ricardo Rodriguez, Pablo Fornals, Giovani Lo Celso and Marc Roca all star for the side. Even Cédric Bakambu, at the age of 34 and winding down his major league career, has nine goal contributions in Europe.

For a while, it looked like Real Betis were destined to be the Conference League bridesmaids. The best of the rest. A rag tag crew who might just question Chelsea’s authority. But now, they’re in the final, and within 90 minutes of glory because they placed their faith in players other sides wouldn’t dare. If they take home their first piece of continental silverware in Wrocław, they might just prove why everybody, even those well and truly down and out, deserve a second chance.