Michail Antonio has beaten the odds throughout his life and career – and now he wants to help youngsters from similar backgrounds do the same.
The West Ham United striker grew up in a working-class family in Wandsworth, south London. There, with the guidance of his mother and wider family, he resisted the temptation to fall into a life of gangs, crime and violence.
Instead, he channeled his energy into football, joining a Premier League Kicks community scheme run by Chelsea and then local club Tooting & Mitcham United.
The schoolboy attracted attention from professional clubs, but his mother would not let him try out at Tottenham Hotspur, while trials at Brentford and Queens Park Rangers were unsuccessful.
Antonio considered giving up the game, but stuck at it and, at the age of 18, joined EFL Championship side Reading in 2008. Over the next three seasons, the youngster worked to improve himself, going on loan to League One sides Cheltenham Town, Southampton, Colchester United and Sheffield Wednesday, gradually establishing himself at senior level.
For Southampton, under the management of Alan Pardew, he scored in the 2010 EFL Trophy final win over Carlisle United at Wembley. His five goals helped Sheffield Wednesday win promotion to the Championship in 2012, and Antonio himself a permanent transfer to Hillsborough.
Antonio’s versatility saw him play across the forward line and register 36 goal involvements in two-plus seasons with the Owls, and led to a £1.5million move to Stuart Pearce’s Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2014.
He would spent just over a year at the City Ground, but what a year it was for Antonio, who plundered 19 goals and 15 assists in just 54 appearances, turning himself into one of the hottest properties outside the Premier League.
On 1 September 2015, deadline day, West Ham United spent £7million to bring Antonio to east London. In just under seven years, he had gone from the Isthmian League Premier Division to the Premier League.
Antonio initially struggled for game-time but forced his way into Slaven Bilić’s side in December 2015 and his list of achievements since then makes for impressive reading: West Ham United’s all-time leading Premier League goalscorer and third-highest appearance-maker; Hammer of the Year; two-time Premier League Player of the Month; full Jamaica international.
The forward’s outgoing personality are evident in his ever-changing hairstyles and choreographed celebrations, while away from the pitch he has become an ambassador for a number of brands, launched his own headline-making podcast, The Footballer's Football Podcast, with Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson, and become a pundit for the Premier League’s international broadcasters.
But while Antonio’s own footballing journey may be almost complete at the age of 32, he has never forgotten his roots. The No9 has thrown his support behind the Players’ Project, West Ham United’s award-winning community outreach scheme, mentoring young people from across east London and beyond, and become an ambassador for the Club’s Women’s team.
And, in 2022, with the help of childhood friend Errol Bignall, community support and education providers and sponsors, he launched the Michail Antonio Football Academy to provide teenagers from his home area of south London with qualifications, traineeships and coaching to help them forge careers in sport.
For Antonio, who also has his own ambitions of moving into broadcasting when his playing career is over, helping others forge similarly successful lives and careers is a passion.
But that playing career is not over yet and, in the immediate future, the forward’s ambition is to fire West Ham United to Premier League safety, just as he did in July 2020, when his eight goals saved the Irons from the drop. Three years on, he would love to do the same...
I had a great time at Nottingham Forest. I loved every moment of being in that club, but obviously, when the Premier League come calling you have to answer!
But it’s always got a fond place in my heart, I've always looked out for their score to see how they're doing and when I saw that they got promoted I was buzzing for them.
When I talk about why I loved being at Forest, it was the fans, the players I was playing with, how we started the season, unbeaten in our first eleven games and were up the top. It wasn't until we lost Chris Cohen and Andy Reid, who were our main midfielders and from there, we just couldn’t win games and we ended up finishing outside the Play-Offs and in mid-table.
It was more that the fans were amazing and you can see how they are know when you go to Forest’s ground, and the people I was playing with and the staff.
Stuart Pearce signed me and he gave me my opportunity there. Forest was a club always around the Play-Offs and when they came in, my manager at Sheffield Wednesday said I was comfortable and it was time to move on, and he needed to sell me to bring in players, so I ended up leaving and it was probably the best thing for me as they had better players and I had to lift my own game.
We had Henri Lansbury, Chris Cohen, Andy Reid, Britt Assombalonga, Jack Hobbs, Michael Mancienne, Jamaal Lascelles, Dexter Blackstock and Matty Fryatt – it was unbelievable. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be, but we should have done better.
I look at Nottingham Forest now and I think they're a decent team.
I think they've made a load of signings by normally it backfires when teams do that, but obviously they're doing alright and drew Man City last weekend so whatever their philosophy is, it's working out for them.
Jesse Lingard, André Ayew and Cheikhou Kouyaté are there.
I love Cheikhou, he is a great character, and to be fair, I hung around with André quite a bit and we went to France together one weekend, just to have some nice food and a night out in Paris. That was nice, to experience a new place.
André’s character is a bit like Marko Arnautović’s. Because he’s very confident in himself, people might take it as arrogance, but actually he’s a really nice guy.
And then obviously, Jesse is an actual legend. I saw him recently at a concert and really get along with him as well, but when you’re an easy-going person, everyone likes you!
As a striker, as a professional, you want to do the job that you are being paid to do.
It's not just a scoring goals as a striker, it’s the hold-up play and a number of other things that I've been bringing to the game in the last few games. But as a striker, you always want to score and the last goal I scored was against Derby, but I've not scored for a while in the Premier League. I need to break the cycle, I need to get that goal so I can go on a run and help lift this team out of the situation we are in.
I scored some important goals to keep us up in 2020 and I believe lightning will strike twice. I know I've got the ability to do it, I know I can do it. I feel like my hold-up play is doing well and that's why I'm getting opportunities. I'm helping to bring the team together, I'm creating chances for other people, so it's just getting those chances for myself. But if we keep playing well then the opportunities will come and that's what I believe in.
With the podcast and media work, one thing I always thought about was, after football, what do I want to be?
I'm a person who always likes to plan ahead. I'd never want to just retire from football and think ‘what am I going to do now?’, so I thought and thought about it.
I don’t really want to be a coach and whatever I do, I want it to be something I love, and something where my personality and character can come out, and I always wanted to be a TV presenter!
To become a presenter, I knew I needed to be seen on TV, to be seen doing things to show my personality and show I can present, so that’s why I have been building myself up as part of my five-year plan to get involved in it.
I want to present shows like ‘A League of Their Own’ or even shows which aren’t sports-related, like ‘Celebrity Juice’ with Keith Lemon – that’s exactly what I’m thinking about going into.
I’d want to keep doing the punditry too, as I don’t want to forget about football, but it’s my dream to present funny shows where I can do and say what I want!
I have a serious side, too, and that’s why I set up my Football Academy.
I used to do a lot of community football schemes when I was younger, like Chelsea Kicks, which was run by Chelsea’s coaches but wasn’t connected directly to their Academy.
It was never about that, but it was about getting kids off the streets, which was a positive because it kept me off the streets and away from mischief and out of any type of trouble.
At my Football Academy, I'm giving people opportunity to do apprenticeships and to get education, to get coaching badges, and to make music because there's a music studio. We're building a brand-new education centre, because I want to give people opportunities.
They also get to play football and if they are good, then we're going to get scouts down and get them opportunities to go on trial.
We’ve got connections to semi-pro clubs and agencies and if they are good enough, we’ll get them trials at actual professional clubs.
I met Errol Bignall when I was 12, when he coached me, and he knows so many people in our community and he helped me set it up, when we have a group of people who run it and I make the final decisions.
We have an initial intake of 40 kids aged 16 to 18 who have left school and then from there we plan to go down to 14 and give them the chance to get an education and a career.
For more information, visit the website michailantonioacademy.co.uk
