Manchester United loanee Antony looks like a completely different man since moving from Old Trafford to the Benito Villamarin, and ever since he’s joined Real Betis, Los Verdiblancos have been the second highest performing team in LaLiga after league title favorite Barcelona.
Isco has been splendid, too, and was instrumental in the 2-1 win over former employers Real Madrid, but Antony has unmistakably been the star of the show.
But where, exactly, does Antony rank? Both in terms of form and overall quality. It’s a difficult question to ask since Antony has just joined LaLiga and previously had a poor reputation as a nearly 100 million euro transfer flop for Manchester United.
Form and class are two distinct entities, and, because of that, it becomes additionally difficult to assess a player on a club like Betis when so much attention is placed on the high-quality players at Real Madrid, Barcelona, and even Atletico Madrid.
Antony has the eighth-best rating in LaLiga
Even at his peak form, Antony isn’t putting up better numbers or performances than the top Barcelona and Real Madrid trios of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski, and, of course, Ballon d’Or favorite Raphinha.
This is just a ballpark number, but Antony has a WhoScored rating of 7.22 in LaLiga, which would actually rank him eighth in the league, just between Villarreal’s Alex Baena at 7.23 and Madrid’s Rodrygo Goes at 7.21.
That’s great company to be in, though, you’d have a hard time finding anyone who thinks Antony is better than Rodrygo, Fede Valverde, or Pedri – current players in the top 10 in rating whom Antony would be placed above.
Furthermore, there are a few other great players who aren’t in the top 10 like Nico Williams, Antoine Griezmann, and Julian Alvarez. And that’s not even getting into the defensive players and goalkeepers.
But with Antony scoring important goals and assists, having transformed Real Betis into Champions League contenders upon his arrival, it’s not entirely unfair to think that he’s been one of the top 10 players in the league right now.
After all, he is creating so many chances for his Betis teammates with a whopping three key passes per game, just under Baena’s league-leading rate. He has a lot of negative plays, sure, but Betis are giving him the freedom to make mistakes and he’s tangibly rewarding them with end product.
He’s even defending well on the wings, too, with over 2.5 combined tackles and interceptions won per game, which would rank him as the best defensive forward in LaLiga right now.
The superstars of Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate the list, but I think, even accounting for the sample size, Antony has been so undeniably brilliant in LaLiga thus far that you have to rank him somewhere on the cusp of the top 10 of the best players in the league. He has to be in the conversation.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.