Abner Vinícius is a Brazilian left-back who joined Olympique Lyonnais from Real Betis in July 2024. He signed on a five year contract and cost the French club €8 million, with Betis entitled to twenty per cent of the fee if Lyon ever sell him on.
To give him his full name, Abner Vinícius da Silva Santos, was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in the Rhône department to hook up with his new team mates. He was handed the number sixteen shirt in Pierre Sage’s Lyon squad and he simply carries the moniker ‘Abner’ on his back, rather than his full appellation.
Abner was signed to offer cover for Nicolás Tagliafico in the left-back role at Lyon and ultimately to compete with the Argentinian international for a place in the first team. As it transpired, Tagliafico was out injured for the first few games of the season, so Abner got his chance on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 Ligue 1 campaign.
In at the deep end
The young Brazilian looked bright going forwards against Rennes, with some promising attacking contributions down the left flank, but endured a torrid time at the other end of the field where the Lyon defence shipped three goals without reply against the Bretons. Things were equally difficult against Monaco the following weekend when Lyon lost 0-2 at home.
Gradually things started to improve as Abner built up an understanding with his new team mates and grew in confidence. They picked up a first win of the season on matchday three with a 4-3 victory against Strasbourg and soon found a bit of consistency. Abner started each of the first six Ligue 1 matches, either at left-back or as wing-back whenever Sage opted for a 3-5-2 formation.
He even scored his first goal for Lyon, the opener in a 4-0 win away at Le Havre in October, before dropping to the bench for a few games as the returning Tagliafico took over on the left side of the defence. His second goal followed soon after, in a 2-2 Europa League draw away at Hoffenheim. Since then, he has been rotated in and out of the starting XI by Sage, sharing the role with Tagliafico whilst clearly growing into the Lyon shirt and looking more assured with every outing.
Adding to a long list of Brazil internationals at OL
Indeed, Abner’s performances for Lyon had not gone unnoticed back home in Brazil and he was called up to the Brazilian national team squad for the first time in October 2024 by coach Dorival Júnior. He started both matches for the Seleção as they beat Chile and Peru in World Cup Qualifying and retained his place the following month for a pair of 1-1 draws against Venezuela and Uruguay.
Abner’s sudden elevation to the Brazil team means that Lyon now find themselves in the enviable position of having the current starting left-backs for both Brazil and Argentina and he is scheduled to come up against Tagliafico during the next international break, in March 2025, when Brazil travel to their southerly neighbours.
Whether both players are still at the club by then remains to be seen as Lyon are desperate to raise funds and may be forced to sell during the January transfer window, but for now they have an embarrassment of riches in this department.
A whirlwind rise to the Hurricane
Abner was born in Presidente Prudente, a city of around a quarter of a million inhabitants in São Paulo State. He began his youth career with spells at local club Grêmio Desportivo Prudente and then Mogi Mirim before signing for Campinas based Ponte Preta in 2017. It was there that he broke through into senior football, making his first team debut in the Paulista State Championship in March 2019, aged just 18. He went on to play nine matches in the Brazilian Serie B later that season and notched up first ever professional goal.
Those performances were enough to attract the attention of Club Athletico Paranaense, across the state border in neighbouring Paraná. The Curitiba based club shelled out around €2.4 million for the teenager’s services in July 2019 and he signed a five year contract with the ‘Furacão’ or Hurricane, as they are known. Abner was a regular in their matchday squad for the remainder of the campaign but only made seven appearances as he gradually adjusted to Serie A football.
First taste of silverware
Future national team manager Dorival Júnior had taken the reins at Athletico in time for the 2020 season, but the state championship, the Campeonato Paranaense, had barely got underway when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The resultant suspension of all footballing activities in Brazil imposed a four month hiatus on Abner Vinícius’ nascent career. The competition resumed in July and Athletico advanced to the final where they faced their cross-town rivals Coritiba over two legs. Unfortunately both matches had to be played behind closed doors due to the virus, so nobody was present to witness a pair of dramatic stoppage time goals in the second leg that sealed a 3-1 aggregate victory and the first trophy of Abner’s career.
Abner had played the full ninety minutes in both legs of the final and was the undisputed first choice left-back when the new Serie A campaign kicked off later that August. Dorival Júnior was dismissed after a run of four defeats in their opening six matches, but Abner only missed four matches all season as Athletico recovered to ninth place to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana.
Going for Gold
The ongoing effects of the pandemic continued to disrupt the 2021 season somewhat, but normality had returned enough for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to take place in July. Abner made his debut for Brazil’s U-23 team in a pre-tournament friendly match and, although he only got a solitary minute of playing time during the finals themselves, he collected an Olympic Gold Medal as part of André Jardine’s winning squad.
Abner returned from Japan as the Copa Sudamericana reached the quarter-finals stage and he helped Athletico get past LDU Quito and Peñarol to reach the final against compatriots Red Bull Bragantino at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Playing as a wing-back down the left side, he helped the ‘Furacão’ to a 1-0 win, meaning that he had lifted domestic, international and continental trophies in the space of sixteen months.
Libertadores heartbreak
The 2022 season saw Athletico Paranaense lose the Recopa Sudamericana against Palmeiras, reach the semi-finals of the Campeonato Paranaense, and finish an impressive sixth in Serie A. However, the highlight was their Copa Libertadores campaign, which took them all the way to the final at the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha in Guayaquil, Ecuador where they faced Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro for the continent’s most prestigious trophy.
It was a tight match, but a five minute period just before the interval proved pivotal when Athletico centre-back Pedro Henrique was dismissed for a second yellow card offence and Gabriel Barbosa scored the only goal of the game in first half stoppage time. The victorious Flamengo manager was none other than Dorival Júnior, who would go on to give Abner his first caps for Brazil less than two years later.
Real deal takes Abner to Spain
Another renowned manager, Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, opted to pay around €7 million to sign Abner Vinícius for Real Betis in the January 2023 transfer window. He made his debut as an extra time substitute in a Copa del Rey match against Osasuna. His future Lyon team mate Paul Akouokou also came off the bench a few minutes later, but neither could prevent a defeat on penalties following a 2-2 draw.
Abner was in and out of the Betis starting line-up during the second half of that 2022-23 LaLiga season as he adapted to European football following his move. He did start both legs of their UEFA Europa League last 16 tie against Manchester United but Betis ended up on the wrong end of a 5-1 aggregate scoreline. They eventually finished in sixth place in LaLiga.
Last season was slightly underwhelming for Betis as they crashed out of European competition and the domestic cup before the end of February and only managed to place seventh in the 2023-24 LaLiga table. On a personal note, Abner Vinícius struggled to hold down a regular spot in the starting line-up, but he did feature in just over half of their fixtures as he shared left-back duties with Juan Miranda. Both players were moved on in July 2024 as part of a clear-out that saw former Lyon hero Nabil Fekir also leave the club. Fekir went to Al Jazira in the UAE and Abner, of course, headed to Lyon.