Nowadays, Premier League footballer’s lifestyles are forever in the public eye, be it through the press or social media, allowing fans to get ever closer to their idols than ever before.
However, it would be impossible to know everything about your favourite player through your favourite tabloid newspaper. This is where SHOOT! comes in handy.
Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.
We have compiled a list of interesting facts about England international and West Ham United star, Michail Antonio, who recently celebrated his first-ever senior Three Lions call-up following his impressive start to the 2016/17 season with the Premier League outfit.
Here are a few things you may not know about the Hammers hero…
Seven-year sensational rise to fame
Photo: Charlotte Wilson / Offside.
Antonio joined non-league outfit Tooting & Mitcham United when he was just 12-years-old.
He scored on his first-team debut for the Terrors against Hendon, when he was 17-years-old, where he would regularly play in front of 200-strong crowds.
Just seven years ago, the winger was featuring for Tooting & Mitcham in the Ryman League. Nowadays, Antonio is an England international and Premier League star.
He secured silverware during his Southampton spell
Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.
After joining Championship side Reading in 2008, Antonio was loaned out to Southampton, where he helped the then League One side lift the 2010 League Trophy.
He scored the Saints’ fourth goal in their 4-1 drubbing of Carlisle United in the final in front of more than 70,000 spectators inside Wembley Stadium.
Not only did Antonio score inside the national stadium and lift silverware, but his strike also came on his 20th birthday! Timely.
Royal promotion
During the 2011/12 campaign, Antonio helped Reading lift the Championship title, making six appearances for the Madejski Stadium outfit.
Coincidentally, he helped the Royals fend off his current club, West Ham United, to the title – though the Hammers did eventually finish third and also secured promotion back to the Premier League via the play-offs. Phew!
Fantastic first season at Forest
Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.
Antonio transferred to Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2014, from Sheffield Wednesday, for a reported fee of £1.5m.
He went onto score 15 goals and provide 14 assists in his only full season at the City Ground, seeing the winger rewarded with Forest’s Player of the Season award during his debut term.
Eyes only for England
Three Lions team-mate, Vardy – Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.
In March 2016, Antonio revealed that he had rejected the opportunity to play for Jamaica on the international stage.
He later also admitted that the rise of fellow former non-league star Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) helped make his decision to hold out for an England call-up.
Birthday boy
Photo: Charlotte Wilson / Offside.
Born on March 28, 1990; Antonio shares his birthday with tennis ace Stan Wawrinka, pop star Lady Gaga and YouTube star Zoe Sugg [Zoella] – who also shares the same birth year!
Mistaken “missing mate”
@davidgold please RT trying to raise awareness for my mate who went missing in Manchester a few weeks ago pic.twitter.com/H8V5aGirId
— jasper (@Jasipai) November 4, 2015
Despite his imperative importance at West Ham, he wasn’t always the most famous face at the club, especially when he first joined the London outfit.
Take David Gold, for example. The Hammers Chairman didn’t even recognise his own player [Antonio] when a prankster tweeted about his “missing mate”.
Despite thinking he was doing a good deed by retweeting the user’s post, the 80-year-old mistook the West Ham winger for a complete stranger…
*FACE PALM*
Spurs snub
Tottenham manager, Mauricio Pochettino – Photo: Charlotte Wilson / Offside.
Antonio rejected a move to Premier League rivals Tottenham when he was 14-years-old, upon his mother’s wish.
The youngster snubbed Spurs when at Tooting & Mitcham because of the exhausting daily commute from south to north London.
Life was going so swimmingly
Photo: Charlotte Wilson / Offside.
The West Ham winger once worked as a lifeguard during his non-league playing days.
During his England press conference, following his first senior international call-up, he said it is “probably one of the boringest jobs you ever do in your life”.
Family fest
Young spectators inside West Ham’s new London Stadium – Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.
And finally; Antonio has three brothers, four sisters, plus 26 nieces and nephews!
That’s a lot of family tickets to sort out this season.