I grew up in a place full of gangs, it made me a fighter, says Soucek’s teammate

Michail Antonio has not had it easy since he was little and he had to fight hard for his place in the world! Today he is a very successful footballer, a loving husband and father of 4 children. But if it wasn’t for his family, he could easily have ended up on the streets with gangsters.

The now 31 year old burly man grew up in London in a place where crime was high and many promising kids ended up in the arms of gangsters or drugs.

“I grew up in a place full of gangs, it made me a fighter. It was very tempting to join them, but I had my brother who gave me good advice. Fortunately, I always listened to him,” Antonio told UEFA about his childhood.

Fortunately, the Jamaica international took the advice of his family and took up football, which he was very talented at, and a London club took notice.

“When I was 14 years old, I signed for Tottenham. The trials lasted six weeks and I had to travel from south to north London by taxi every day. I’d get home around midnight and have to go to school in the morning. My mum and dad didn’t believe football was something you could make money at that time,” Antonio continued.

The author of 51 league goals (Premier League) has played for a number of English clubs, but his success really started after a move to Nottingham Forest, where he lasted a year before West Ham took a chance on him.

To date he has played 190 games for the Hammers, scoring 54 goals and assisting a further 31. But as he reveals, even at West Ham it wasn’t easy from the edge, and then doubly so when he changed coach.

“I’ve played under many coaches and often I wasn’t their cup of tea. When I first came to West Ham, they were coached by Slaven Bilic and I didn’t play for the first three months. It was similar with Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes, but in the end I was their first choice in attack ,” Antonio finished the interview.

As the London native put it right at the beginning, he is a great fighter who is definitely not afraid of challenges. He’s not a top technician, but he’s very good with the ball and very strong, which makes him very valuable to his team.

Source: UEFA