Antonio: I escaped the gang culture
Michail Antonio on his journey from the troubled streets of London to the brink of playing for England
MICHAIL ANTONIO is so unassuming, it is hard to imagine him ever being tempted by the bravado of a south London street gang.
Footballers don’t usually embrace self-deprecation but Antonio, scorer of five goals in four matches this season with West Ham and called into Sam Allardyce’s England squad earlier this month, seems comfortable enough discussing the embarrassment he experienced when he moved from Ryman League Tooting and Mitcham to Championship side Reading in 2008.
‘Because I had played non-League football, I was used to trapping the ball and then getting my head up and passing it,’ he says. ‘But in training at Reading, every time — bang, the ball was gone. I’m not going to lie. I was one of those guys in training where the team would say: “We don’t want him with us! He just loses the ball every time!”
‘But then we played five-a-side and I’d be scoring goals all the time. That’s when I’d come alive. I was sharp, I was nippy, I was quick. But those keep-ball sessions, it was like: “Keep him away!”’
He relates all of this cheerfully, with his big laugh filling the room. Maybe, at 26, he has enough credibility and confidence to talk about vulnerabilities. But it hasn’t always been like that; or at least, the environment he inhabited wasn’t necessarily kind to those showing any weakness. Antonio grew up in a loving family home in Earlsfield, in south west London, a pleasant, largely affluent district, squeezed between the housing estates of Battersea and Tooting, where gang violence was prevalent. Last week, Antonio was paying an inspirational visit to his former school, Southfields Academy, with West Ham officials. As a young man growing up in south London, it was impossible not to be affected by the feuds between the local gangs, SUK (Stick ’Em Up Kidz) and TZ (Terror Zone) the results of which were both traumatising and fatal. ‘In Earlsfield, I was slightly out of it but obviously I had friends who were in SUK, I had friends who were in TZ,’ says Antonio. ‘But my brother, John, who was two years older, never got into any gangs or anything. He said: “Why would you join a
gang and have friends just from one gang when you could have friends all over?”
‘There was a stage when SUK joined up with TZ and they became SNT. That was Clapham Junction and Tooting/Mitcham; they were both together. That lasted a month. After that, everyone from Tooting couldn’t go into Clapham Junction and everyone from Clapham Junction couldn’t go into Tooting.
‘One of my good friends, Eugene, who used to play football for Wandle Wanderers with me, went from Clapham Junction with SUK to Mitcham. I don’t know why they went, but they ended up going there. He got stabbed to death.
‘And one of my other friends went to prison for it. Within a month of being friends, all in one crew, all happy, within six months of that, one of my other friends had died from getting stabbed.’
He is referring to the murder of 16-year-old Eugene Attram in 2006. Back at his old school, where Antonio used to work as a lifeguard and help out at toddlers’ parties in the leisure centre, he says how easy it is, as a teenager, to become embroiled in something so life threatening.
‘I fully put it down to my brother that I didn’t,’ he says. ‘Because, I easily could have gone down that path. They ask you: “You want to join?” And you’re, like: “Yeah or no.” And as soon as you say “Yeah” it’s like: “He’s in this crew.” And it’s such a small bubble. . I’ve known someone e who said: “Yeah, I’m in.” And he joined SUK. TZ saw him in Tooting. They didn’t stab him but they beat him up.
‘To be honest, growing up, all thoseose in the crew, they are the people e who have the money, because of what they do. And because they have the money, they’re attracting all the young girls. And at that stage, all girls like a bad boy. That’s why it’s easy to join. But because my brother had a wise head on and he spoke to me, I never did.’
The key influences are clear. There were his parents, of course, guiding him. His elder brother and teachers at school. Then there was the youth club, Providence House, which operates behind Clapham Junction station on the Winstanley Estate, once home to garage collective So Solid Crew, and run by Robert Musgrave, who received an MBE in 2011 for his work.
Antonio played for their football teams between the ages of 11 and 16 and even had a trip to Russia to play in a youth tournament. ‘It’s just like a youth centre to keep the kids off the streets,’ he says. ‘It was a great experience because it was in Clapham Junction, the heart of it, by Winstanley Estate, and Peabody Estate, and there were people getting stabbed and getting shot.
‘Robert had all of them in one place and no trouble ever started in that place. So he’s definitely done something special and he’s got the rewards. In a place with bad kids, he had respect for them.’
He is reminded of a time when graffiti appeared on the door of the youth club and Musgrave shut the club down, refusing to reopen until it was cleaned up. ‘I remember that happening and the kids were going nuts, saying: “Who did it? Go, clean it now!” He got the kids themselves to police it and that’s what you kind of need. People are not always going to step in and help you out. You have to sort it out yourself.’
The trip to Moscow aged 15 was arranged by Chelsea’s community programme and was something of an eye-opener. ‘We got flown out there. It was scary, to think about it: 15 black kids in Russia. Everywhere we went everyone was jus just staring at us. There wa was one place, the police pul pulled us over. They had mas massive automatic pistols. The They made two of us get out a and they were just talking in Russian. We were in the coach, just pooing ourselves. What’s going on?!
‘But it was an amazing experience. We played in a massive stadium. And we came second in the tournament. We got to see all the sights and like we definitely enjoyed it and the boys were: “Where’s the next one, where are we going next?”’
A combination of positive influences have helped him to where he is today but nothing will trump the guidance of his brother John, who spurred him on to his England callup. ‘He has always coached me through life,’ say Antonio. ‘From 13, he was working with my uncle to make his own building and decorating company and now he has one.
‘He has always thought ahead. There was a stage when I thought I would never make it, when I was 17. My dad used to say to me: “Stop playing football and go and get a real job”. There wasn’t much money in the house. But my brother was like: “Don’t give up”. He’s gone out and bought me my first pair of real football boots. I always used to go to wear the £30 boots, the plastic ones. You play like six or seven games and they rip. And he’s gone out and bought me my first pair of real boots. I think it was like £150, Nike Total 90s. And those were the boots that got me to Reading.’
Following the trend of the moment, like Jamie Vardy, Charlie Austin and Yannick Bolasie, he is a graduate of non-League football, having initially found a place at Tooting and Mitcham in the Ryman League, the old Isthmian League. ‘Oh man, there were a lot of kicks,’ he says.
Tooting’s manager recommended him to Steve Coppell at Reading. There were loan spells at Cheltenham, Southampton, Colchester and Sheffield Wednesday, the latter selling him for £1.5m to Nottingham Forest, from where he joined West Ham last summer for £7m.
The tougher way to the top seems to be producing more effective, mentally stronger players than much-vaunted academies. ‘These players are coming up and breaking records, getting England call-ups,’ he says. ‘So why would you pay £10m to £15m and find out that person is average when you can pay 250 grand and get a quality player?
‘One thing that someone always said to me was: “Never give up”. That’s one thing that has always stuck in my mind.’
And should he receive an England cap next month, it will seem even more apposite than ever.