Even if my bare feet bled without soccer shoes, I wouldn’t be afraid as long as there was a ball.
Watching football videos on Wi-Fi next door, Ajax-Man Utd… finally saved
“I never wanted a Christmas present. It was a perfect day with only one object that looked like a ball.”
Brazilian football representative Anthony (22, Manchester United) confessed it through an article entitled “The Boy from Hell”, published on the 16th by the “Players Tribune”. The Players Tribune, created by Derek Jeter (48), a major league star for the New York Yankees, is a medium for players to tell their life stories.
Antoni was born and raised in the favela (slum) of São Paulo, called Infernino (Portuguese for “little hell”). A drug dealer was always camping in front of the gate, and the smell of marijuana smoked by people in the alley filled the house. When I was hungry, I had to sleep on my side in the cramped bed I shared with my parents. There was also an instance where he jumped over a dead body blocking his way to school and hurried his steps towards the school. These poor neighborhood kids were busy watching and learning the skills left by Brazilian soccer legends through YouTube if they somehow got a Wi-Fi signal. The only stage where they showcased the skills they learned was the “Asphalt League”, where children and adults played together. Anthony recalled those days:
“I didn’t have the money to buy football boots, so I kicked the ball onto the asphalt with my bare feet bleeding. When a drug dealer blocked his way, he beat him with a flip flap like Ronaldinho (42), and like Neymar (30), he lifted the ball with a rainbow kick (sandpaper) to get out of the driver’s close mark. ‘bus. After Ronaldo (46), he caught the ball between the thief’s legs and broke through. With the ball at your feet, you had nothing to fear.”
For Anthony, the only salvation was the soccer ball. And there was a father who raised his son waking up at 5 a.m. every day and working 15 hour days, and a neighbor who didn’t blame him for “stealing” the Wi-Fi. Anthony, who didn’t know how to let go of the ball no matter how hungry he was, kicked and kicked the ball, dreaming of getting out of the favela. It was a dream that hasn’t changed even after becoming a professional player in Brazil in 2018.
Anthony celebrates after scoring his debut goal in the 35th minute of his debut match in the English Premier League (EPL). Manchester = AP NewsAnthony fulfilled his dream when he signed with Ajax in the Netherlands on February 23, 2020. And he rewarded Ajax for saving him in the favela by scoring a goal in the first match played in an Ajax kit. In his debut match for the Brazilian national team on October 8 of the following year, Anthony also broke through the Venezuelan net. The same was true for Arsenal on September 5 this year, their first match in the English Premier League (EPL). Anthony now looking to score on his World Cup debut.
Anthony, who plays as a right winger, has been named in the final squad of the Brazil national team for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar announced on the 16th by the International Football Federation (FIFA). There is a high possibility that the opening match of Group G against Serbia on the 25th will be Anthony’s World Cup debut. And somewhere in the favela, the footballer who is dominating the Asphalt League with Anthony’s left foot, which he learned by looking through stolen Wi-Fi, must have grown up again.
Reporter Hwang Gyu-in [email protected]
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