Quotes from Michail Antonio

I signed for Reading and then West Ham where people called me 'The Invisible Man' or a 'poster' because I was on the bench for three months. I turned down opportunities to go on loan because I'd achieved everything I wanted in the Championship.

I never really thought about becoming the all-time top goalscorer. Because when I first signed for West Ham, I was just trying to get a game.

London is becoming more of a business than a place for families. You can't live here. We're not investing in the future.

There was the time when I thought about joining a gang. When you're young and the girls are attracted to the bad boys, the bad boys had all the money. I didn't have much so I wanted to attract that.

Pre-season is warm-up for the season so if you can do it in pre-season then you can do it in the season. So it's always better to go out there and give it your all, get your fitness and make sure you perform, because obviously sometimes managers take performances in pre-season to decide if you're going to start the first game of the season.

When I was 14 I had a trial for Tottenham. They were thinking of signing me but my mum said no. She said education comes first. Did I hate her at the time? You couldn't imagine. I was crying and all sorts.

I had trials with QPR where I won all the running drills and after playing a match, I was told that whatever I did would determine if I got scouted. I scored and assisted one, only to be told I didn't put enough crosses in. So I didn't get signed.

You calling me anything doesn't affect my life. I'm still going to go home and give my Mrs a kiss, give my kids a cuddle.

The worst injury I've ever had was a knee in the back when I was 20 or 21, in training at Reading. I couldn't sit down or lie down for a week. I just lay on my front for a week.

Kurt Zouma is a strong guy.

I always believe that people need to strive and push forward and keep going for your dreams and never give up. It doesn't matter what age you are.

You've got to take each step as it comes - you can't think about 20 steps away because it will distract you and trip you up.

I always want to push on, I always want to keep going because I feel like I've missed out on things in the past, so I'm going to keep going until I can't go anymore.

I was 13 and one of the boys on the other team called me a monkey. When I was younger, that sort of thing got me angry. I was the one who got a red card that day.

I never think 'I've made it' because, in football, you can be forgotten within two weeks and I don't ever want to be forgotten.

Some of my closest friends are Angelo Ogbonna, who's Italian, and Pablo Fornals who is Spanish. His English is good but is not proper. There's enough for me to understand what he's got to say and we can go out and have a meal and be able to speak to each other through it so it is quality.

Can you give someone a bad name for wanting to be ambitious? For wanting to move onto bigger things? That person is ambitious, that person wants to do stuff, that person wants to move on with his life.

You can see it with Dele Alli, he's come from League One and he's already in the England squad. You see it with Vardy. Hopefully I can get the call-up as well.

Racism can be stopped in football stadiums but it all depends on what the FA and UEFA want to do about it.

One thing I have always believed in is to never give up.

I was planning on becoming a teacher. I didn't become professional until I was 17, nearly 18, so I was going to college - I picked universities and everything - and I was planning on becoming a PE teacher.

I don't really pay attention to the long-term, I take short steps - that is what I have done through my whole career, from non-league to the Premier League.

I have got a self-confidence that I have the ability but felt I was not being lucky and was an unlucky person.

Being a lifeguard was boring. Bo-ring. It was an indoor pool and it's so hot and humid in there. All you can do is sit there - you can't have music on because you need to pay attention and not be distracted. So you're just sat there, you're looking at people swim up and down, up and down. That was so boring.