Manchester United winger Antony has taken former club Ajax to court claiming he was unfairly penalized in the build-up to his £86m transfer.
The 24-year-old became United’s third-most expensive signing ever – behind Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku – when he moved to Old Trafford in August 2022, following a lengthy career transfer a saga in which Ajax rejected multiple offers from the 13-time Premier League winners.
Antony expressed his desire to reunite with Erik ten Hague before the deal was agreed – he moved to United to succeed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager earlier in the summer – and turned down the possibility of extending his contract with Ajax.
Training sessions were missed as United negotiated a price with Ajax and Antony was left out of the Amsterdam giants’ Eredivisie clash against Sparta Rotterdam despite being fit to play.
Dutch newspaper AD (via The Times) report that legal proceedings are ongoing, with Antony claiming that Ajax’s decision to fine him on three separate occasions for being absent without permission was “illegal”. The amount Antony is seeking is reportedly “several hundred thousand euros.”
Antony’s move to United has not gone as planned, leading to speculation that he could be offloaded in the current January transfer window.
A rapid start to his career in England saw Antony score three times in his first three Premier League games, but he scored just twice in the 57 games that followed. He has been on the fringes of United’s squad both under Ten Haag, who was sacked earlier this season, and under Ruben Amorim, who was appointed the club’s first head coach in November.
Antony has yet to start a Premier League this season, playing just 84 minutes as a second-half substitute on six occasions.
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