Hammers star Antonio credits mum’s advice for successful career

Michail Antonio is a West Ham regular who has earned call-ups to the England squad but claims he wouldn’t be where he is today’s without his mum’s advice to focus on education.

Antonio was in non-league Tooting & Mitcham United’s junior teams when, as a 14-year-old, he was scouted by Spurs.

But his mother refused to let him link up with the club as she believed the travelling involved would have an adverse effect on her son’s schoolwork.

Having progressed to Tooting & Mitcham’s first-team, Antonio was all set to study Sports Science at Southampton University en route to being a PE teacher when he got signed by Reading in 2008.

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

The midfielder went from there, to Sheffield Wednesday, to Nottingham Forest, then West Ham and admits he is delighted to now have an education and a professional football career.

“At 14, the manager of my school also coached at Tottenham and he got a scout to come down,” explained Antonio.

“Me and my friend both got scouted and he scored an unbelievable overhead kick from outside the box!

“So he went and my mum said ‘no’ because, to be honest, I lived in south London and would have had to travel to north London every day.

“I also had to do college, so I’d have got home at eleven o’clock at night and then had to get up to go to school.

“My mum said ‘football isn’t a guarantee, but education is’ and ‘education comes first’ and I think it’s one of the best things she could have ever done for me because I’ve now got my education and I’ve also got my football.”