“It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve been involved in, in my life.”
Michail Antonio believes he plays his best football when the pressure is on, and is not afraid to admit the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League final will be the highlight of his career to date.
The 33-year-old is West Ham United’s all-time leading scorer in European football with nine goals to his name, including seven in this season’s run to the 7 June showdown with ACF Fiorentina.
All seven of Antonio’s strikes have come in victories as the Irons won 13 of their 14 ties, including qualifiers, to reach the final in Prague, and the No9 is eager to add to his tally in another victory, this time over the Italian Serie A side.
Should he find the net twice, he could also finish as the tournament proper’s leading scorer, as he goes into the final just one behind Fiorentina’s Arthur Cabral and FC Basel’s Zeki Amdouni.
“Scoring goals has always been a goal [for me]; as a striker, you’re always meant to be scoring goals,” he said. “But I just want to be a part of it, I always want to contribute in any way that I can through either goals or assists, but obviously, [scoring] goals is the main mission for me, and that’s one thing I definitely want to achieve.
“And obviously, in terms of goals so far, I’m just one behind the leader, so I’m going for that top goalscoring record.”
Goalscoring records are nothing new to Antonio, of course, as the forward has netted more times in the Premier League, 61, than any other player in West Ham United’s history in the competition.
For a player who started out with non-league Tooting & Mitcham and had a number of unsuccessful trials at professional clubs before making the grade, there is huge satisfaction gained from overcoming the odds to reach the highest level and be just 90 minutes from winning a major European trophy.
“Honestly, I don’t really see getting pressure from [scoring Premier League goals], I had more pressure of beating it (the Club’s all-time record, which was previously held by Paolo Di Canio with 47 goals). When I heard that I got close to it, I was like ‘Now, I have to beat it’. But, now, obviously, I’m at the top, and I want to score more goals to make it more difficult for someone to catch me.
“Now I’ve achieved it, I’m just buzzing that I’ve achieved it. But my goal is to always make sure that I do better each year, so me doing better each year means I get more goals each year [and] makes it harder for the next person to catch me. But I like pressure when it’s ‘big pressure’.”
For Antonio, ‘big pressure’ has brought the best out in him, most notably in the final game at the Boleyn Ground in 2016, when he headed the equaliser in West Ham’s 3-2 win over Manchester United, and again during the COVID-affected relegation battle of summer 2020, when he scored eight goals in six matches to keep the Hammers in the Premier League.
More recently, he netted twice in the Conference League round of 16 first-leg win at AEK Larnaca, twice more in the 4-1 quarter-final second-leg victory at home to KAA Gent, then nodded in the leveler in the 2-1 semi-final first-leg win over AZ Alkmaar at London Stadium.
“Obviously, playing [in the] semi-finals or, obviously, when we're 1-0 down or in relegation scraps – these are the times that you notice that I come alive, because those are the games where I’m used to having that pressure,” he confirmed. “But coming from non-league, I constantly had to go on trials, and those are the things that kind of adapted me to the pressure.”
Now, 47 years after Sir Trevor Brooking, Billy Bonds and company were denied European Cup Winners’ Cup final glory by RSC Anderlecht, Antonio is ready to rise to the challenge again.
A Football League Trophy winner with Southampton in 2011, the striker has his sights trained on Fiorentina and UEFA Europa Conference League glory in Prague next Wednesday evening.
“It’s massive, to be fair,” he confirmed. “We’ve not been in a [European] final for 47 years. I’ve won a JPT [Football League Trophy] final, so this is massive for me. It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve been involved in, in my life.
“Most people want to retire with some type of accolades and this is an opportunity for me to have those accolades. But it’s not just for me, it’s for everyone. Like you said, they finished runners-up [in 1976]; we want to win it.”
