It is a short drive from Theydon Bois station to Coppice Row. Here, the shattered remains of Michail Antonio’s Ferrari lie between two splintered trees.
The debris consists of a car window and a few engine parts. Antonio remains in hospital following his car accident on Saturday at this spot in the Essex countryside, on London’s north-east outskirts. He is in good spirits but faces a long recovery. The 34-year-old West Ham United forward had surgery on a lower limb fracture and will continue to be closely monitored.
Tomas Soucek and captain Jarrod Bowen dedicated their goals to Antonio during Monday’s 2-1 Premier League victory over fellow relegation candidates Wolverhampton Wanderers — he had spoken to his London Stadium team-mates before the match. Many of those to have lined up alongside him for other clubs in his long career have been in touch to wish him well with his recovery.
The London-born Jamaica international is known for being a fan favourite and West Ham club legend, but he is also considered a brother and a son to people he has crossed paths with.
This is what Antonio means to West Ham — from those who managed and played alongside him.
Slaven Bilic was the West Ham manager who signed Antonio from Nottingham Forest in summer 2015 for £7million ($8.9m at the current exchange rate). Bilic left the club two years later but has stayed in touch with Antonio. He admits he feared the worst when he saw pictures of the wrecked Ferrari.
“I was at home on Saturday scrolling through my phone,” Bilic tells The Athletic. “Then I received an alert about Michail being involved in a car crash. I saw a picture of the car and thought: ‘No way someone can survive that’. The car was completely written off but God saved him. A lot of people have said it’s a miracle, but it was God.
“I haven’t spoken to Michail but I reached out to people at West Ham. They gave me an update and I thanked God he was alive. It’s horrible what happened to him and he has a long recovery ahead. But if anyone can come back from this, it is Michail. I love him like a son. He’s a warrior and that’s just his character.”
Antonio grew up in south London and started his career at local non-League side Tooting & Mitcham before spells at Reading, Cheltenham Town (loan), Southampton (loan), Colchester United (loan), Sheffield Wednesday (initial loan made permanent) and Forest. He is West Ham’s record Premier League goalscorer with 68 goals. He has also made the third-most Premier League appearances for the club (248), only behind Aaron Cresswell (299) and their former captain, now sporting director, Mark Noble (414).
Bilic with Antonio at West Ham (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“It was always a journey with Michail, not just one moment,” says Bilic. “When I was manager, the fans would always say: ‘Let’s sign a striker’. First we brought (Simone) Zaza, then, after me, they signed (Sebastien) Haller, (Gianluca) Scamacca, but it was always Michail who was the first choice.
“In his second season, we played Manchester City away. Sam Allardyce was the England manager and he called up Michail for the senior squad. After the game, I told Michail and he was super happy. He went with England for their game against Slovakia but he didn’t play. He came back and he was really down. I said: ‘What’s wrong?’. He said he was disappointed he didn’t play. I had to do everything to lift his mood. But that’s Michail for you. He’s super ambitious and driven.”
Antonio, a winger at the time rather than the central striker he would become at West Ham, scored 14 goals in 46 appearances for Forest in their 2014-15 season in the second-tier Championship. Despite those impressive numbers, there were doubts over whether he could make the step up to the Premier League. West Ham were the only top-flight club willing to take a risk on him.
“When we signed him, the only question I had was why no one else had signed him,” says Bilic. “He was 25 and it seemed like no other club wanted to take a chance on him, but it worked out well for West Ham and I’m proud of what he’s gone on to accomplish. What makes me smile the most is the fact he’s gone on to become a West Ham legend. They tried to say he was just a Championship player and he’s proved them all wrong.”
Monday’s league fixture against Wolves was always going to be emotional given the severity of Antonio’s car accident, but West Ham;s players and supporters rallied together during a potentially vital win as they fight to stay in the Premier League. His team-mates, who had spoken to him by video call before the match, wore replica ‘Antonio, 9’ shirts during the warm-up and when they walked out onto the pitch for kick-off. West Ham will now auction these off, with each one having been signed by every member of the squad — yes, including Antonio.
Soucek showed nine fingers when he scored the game’s opening goal early in the second half. Bowen held an Antonio shirt up high during the celebrations after netting the winner 18 minutes later.
“That Saturday evening is probably the worst thing I’ve been involved in, in terms of finding out and waiting for the news that ultimately he was safe,” Bowen, West Ham’s current captain, tells The Athletic. “There were a lot of emotions coming into the game. Of course, there would be — he’s our friend and team-mate, and something terrible had happened to him. But we had to go out there and win for him, and you could see that with the celebrations.
“Mich has a special connection with everyone at this club. When he’s well enough to come in, I can imagine he will be the same Mich. He’s a warrior and he’s been through a lot in his career. This isn’t something he wanted but is definitely something he will fight through because that’s how he is as a character.
“He’s one of the best and since I’ve been captain, he’s helped me with it. We have a fines system going on and he’s in charge of that. We had emails from the security guard when people were coming in late, so I’m sure Michail is still receiving those emails and he’ll be telling me when people are late. I haven’t been fined. I’m always early!
“He’s a brilliant footballer but an even better person. You can see that through the love and support he’s received. He’s probably one of the best guys I’ve come across in football. Like I said, Saturday was really difficult, especially when I couldn’t do anything to help; more praying that we’ll have good news and, in the end, it was. Now we’ll be here to support him on his road to recovery.”
Moyes with Antonio (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
David Moyes, who has had two spells as Antonio’s manager at West Ham, converted him from a winger into a centre-forward in the pandemic-extended 2019-20 season. When that campaign resumed in the June after three months of lockdown, Antonio memorably scored four goals in one game against Norwich City. It was the first hat-trick of his professional career and he was the first West Ham player to net four times in a league match since David Cross did it against Tottenham Hotspur in 1981.
Antonio has 83 goals in 323 appearances for West Ham. Between 2019-20 and 2022-23, he scored in double figures for four consecutive seasons. Haller, who joined for a club-record £45million in July 2019, and Scamacca, signed in a £35m deal in summer 2022, were bought to take his place. Yet he remained a pivotal part of Moyes’ attack — capped off by West Ham winning the Europa Conference League final in May of last year.
“He’s been very hard to replace over the last four years,” Moyes tells The Athletic. “He’s done a great job and he’s someone who the fans really appreciate. A lot of the strikers we bought hadn’t been successful but they arrived with good pedigree. I’d converted Marko Arnautovic into a centre-forward and I was confident I could do the same for Michail.
“He scored four goals against Norwich and that kept us up. It was in the middle of covid and from that game, we started to build as a club. I remember me and Alan Irvine (West Ham first-team coach at the time) having a chat after that, saying we have to do something more than (just) avoiding relegation.
“Michail played a big part in our journey of qualifying for Europe and winning the Conference League. I remember me and him had a stand-up (argument) once in the dressing room because I didn’t think he was doing enough. Then, two minutes later, we’re hugging each other. Thankfully, I was often able to get him to respond well to criticism.
“Now he’s a West Ham legend and no one can take that from him.”
(Top photo: Jasper Jacobs/Belga mag/AFP via Getty Images)
Read the full article here