So You Want Some Bubbles,eh…?

Refusing to let his dreams fade and die, Michail Antonio has seldom had more to smile about. The West Ham hero and FFT’s Breakthrough Man of the Year reveals his route to the top.

- Alec Fenn

Michail Antonio is in a playful mood. The West Ham United winger has spent the previous 25 minutes frolicking about to R’n’B amid a sea of bubbles, in front of a photographer who applauds his every move.

This air of frivolity surrounding him spells bad news for FFT. Antonio sits down and then points at our tired brown leather shoes and offers to buy us some new ones before bursting into laughter. We politely decline.

He has good reason to be in jovial spirits. Over the past 12 months, Antonio has transformed from a figure of social media fun into a cult hero on the fringes of the England team.

In November last year, West Ham co-chairman David Gold was tricked into retweeting a picture posted by a mischievous fan, purporting to be appealing for a ‘missing person’. The image was in fact of Antonio, who had made just one appearance for the club after his £7 million summer move from Nottingham Forest. He remembers the incident with a wince.

“People were calling me the invisible man,” he tells FFT. “They laughed because the chairman didn’t recognise me. But I always knew I would do well if I got a chance. I didn’t lose belief.”

The 26-year-old has an infectious self-confidence that stops short of arrogance. Minutes before our interview begins, he removes his shirt and whirls it in the air before throwing jabs and hooks at the camera.

That force of personality has been a powerful fuel since his teenage years. While many of his friends joined Premier League sides in their youth, Antonio played for Tooting & Mitcham until he was 18. “There were players I thought I was better than,” he recalls, “getting trials at Arsenal and Fulham. But if people asked what I would be, I’d say with authority, ‘I’m going to be a professional.’”