I refused to pay £7 subs for non-league team – 7 games later I was playing in Championship and now I’m European champion

MICHAIL ANTONIO is still standing, after all this time.

Looking like a true survivor and still feeling like the little kid who had to fight even to make it as a footballer, Antonio has seen off all-comers to become and remain West Ham’s main man.

Michail Antonio starred in non-league before joining Reading in 2008Rex

Antonio lifts the Europa Conference League trophy with West HamRichard Pelham / The Sun

Although the Jamaica international, now 33, doesn’t want to big himself up quite that much.

Antonio said: “I wouldn’t say main man! 

“I didn’t set out to be a striker, I didn’t set out to be here for nine years. 

“It has been a crazy, rollercoaster ride.

“There has been only one transfer window where I haven’t been linked away.

“So it has been quite weird because every single year I have had to prove myself again.

“I’m not the prettiest footballer but I know who I am and I understand that. 

“Every manager sees the positives I can bring to the team and ends up starting to use me.”

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The hunger and belief to win that annual battle comes from Antonio’s pre-fame days.

As a teenager playing for non-League Tooting & Mitcham, he had trials for Brentford and QPR but wasn’t signed.

Then AFC Wimbledon demanded he paid the £7 registration fee to join them.

Antonio said: “I thought, ‘No, I’m good enough for you to be paying £7 for me’.

“I went back and signed a contract at Tooting & Mitcham, and after seven games I signed for Reading. 

“So the fighter was always in me and being here at West Ham has constantly made me fight. 

“It has made me a better player and it’s why I have been here for so long.

“Every single year I have had to prove I had the quality to be here.”

Gianluca Scamacca, who scored for Italy against England last week, is the latest centre forward to come and go while Antonio has written himself into West Ham folklore.

Two seasons ago he became the Hammers’ leading scorer in the Premier League and in June was part of the team that won the Europa Conference League, the club’s first major trophy for 43 years.

To achieve these and other landmarks at West Ham is particularly special to Antonio because of his respect and admiration for Clyde Best.

It is Black History Month and Antonio is well aware of the different kind of challenges Best faced when he joined the Hammers at the age of 17 as one of the first black players of English football’s modern era.

Antonio said: “Clyde Best laid the ground for every black player in the Premier League today. 

“His story is crazy, from having to fly from Bermuda to getting directions to the training ground and having to live in digs all on his own. 

“Being the first black player, having to handle the racism in that time – I don’t think I could handle it, I would probably have been fighting. 

“He would have been getting riled up, and people would have shouted abuse at him, but he showed we can do it.”

GettyThe versatile star is Mr Popular at the London Stadium[/caption]

GettyThe Jamaican has a lot of love for Ian Wright[/caption]

Antonio’s other heroes when he was growing up included global icons like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry.

But Ian Wright – another former Hammers striker – holds a special place in his heart.

Antonio said: “It’s because of how he broke through from non-league to achieve all he did in his career.

“And he always showed his character on the pitch. It’s so easy to be just another person.

“I don’t ever want to be just another person. I want you to know me and my personality.”

MICH-ING HIS MARK

On the pitch, Antonio does that with his goal celebrations and tireless effort.

Off it, he’s found an outlet in the Footballer’s Football Podcast, where he and Newcastle striker Callum Wilson trade insight and insults under the watchful ear of Rickie Haywood-Williams.

Antonio hopes one day to follow Wright into mainstream entertainment broadcasting, as opposed to pure punditry.

But for now, and after staying longer at West Ham than anybody expected, he has other targets.

Antonio said: “I’ve definitely got a good legacy. 

“I was one of the last people to score at the Boleyn Ground, the first person to score at the London Stadium in the Premier League, first player to score four goals… I’ve got a list!

“Right now I’m on 77 goals, what’s the next thing? To score 100 goals for West Ham. It is close enough for me to get there. 

“13 more assists to become highest ever in West Ham’s history, to beat Mark Noble.

“I want to get the most accolades in my career as possible.”