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Michail Antonio’s rise to the highest level of English football was far from a simple one.

The former West Ham forward had to cope with knockbacks, injuries and missed chances that nearly pushed his career off course before it had properly begun.

One of the earliest disappointments arrived when he was only 14, after the young Antonio was offered a place at a Premier League academy.

That chance came with Tottenham, but his mother decided to turn it down.

“Yeah, I was playing for my school team and my teacher, Mr Watson, kind of worked with Spurs,” Antonio told FourFourTwo. “He got them to come and watch me and another player, we were both quite good.

“They scouted us and I was buzzing, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to go to Spurs’ academy, this is the start of me becoming a professional.’”

But when an excited teenage Antonio went back home to tell his mum, he was quickly brought back to reality.

“I went home to tell my mum – she wasn’t really into football and was like, ‘Oh, where is it?’ I said North London, and she asked, ‘So when are you going to be going there?’

“I was like, ‘Every day after school.’ She said, ‘What time will you be getting back?’ I said, ‘Around 11 or 12.’”

For Antonio’s mother, that was completely out of the question, and she was not prepared to compromise.

“She said, ‘No, no chance. Your education comes first, there’s no way that we’re putting your education at risk for football, which isn’t a guarantee.’”

Any objections from Antonio were dismissed immediately.

“She was like, ‘Go upstairs to your bed, you ain’t going nowhere, mate.’ I was fuming! I was crying that night non-stop, I thought she’d taken my dream away from me…”

Michail Antonio’s autobiography, Humans Not Robots, published by HarperCollins, is available now.