Michail Antonio closing in on Paolo Di Canio’s West Ham goal despite starting career as right-back, with striker thrilling fans with knack for scoring against rivals and wild celebrations

When Michail Antonio walks out at the London Stadium on Monday, hoping to become West Ham United’s all-time leading Premier League goalscorer, it’ll be difficult to recall his tough start at the club...

... when he was struggling to get into the Hammers side as a full-back.

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Antonio needs just one more goal to overtake Paolo Di Canio as the club’s top Premier League goalscorer, and could make history against Leicester City on Monday night.

The 31-year-old Londoner arrived at West Ham as a winger - he hadn’t really played upfront since his days at Tooting and Mitcham United in the Isthmian League.

He joined Reading from the non-leaguers in 2008 for £25,000 as a lanky 18-year-old but, after four loans in League One with the likes of Cheltenham Town, Colchester United, Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton, he couldn’t find his way into the Royals’ first-team picture.

Sheffield Wednesday decided to sign Antonio permanently and, after a couple of decent seasons in the Steel City, Nottingham Forest gambled on the wide man, despite an injury-hit couple of seasons.

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Their gamble paid off and his 14 goals and 14 assists in the Championship during the 2014-15 campaign meant West Ham were happy to splash around £7million for his services, after just one season with Forest.

More than 150 appearances [159 to be precise] and six positions later, Antonio could now be set to overtake West Ham icon Di Canio in the club’s goalscoring charts.

And so, it’s ludicrous to think he was deployed as an auxiliary right-back at times during his career in the east of the capital.

His evolution into a striker who has scored 47 times for West Ham in the top-flight since 2015 arguably began under Manuel Pellegrini in 2019, as the Chilean boss tried and failed to utilise the 31-year-old through the middle.

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He really kicked on as a centre-forward, however, when David Moyes took charge of the club for a second time in December of that year, as Antonio finished the 2019-20 campaign in sensational form, scoring 9 goals in 15 games to help the club avoid relegation.

One of his goals that season predictably came against Tottenham and, since joining one of Spurs’ local rivals, he has loved playing against the north Londoners.

He’s plundered five goals in nine games against them, including one in his side’s 2-1 win over Jose Mourinho’s side last season, and he became the first opposition player to score at Tottenham’s new stadium.

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That was a goal that prompted one of his many weird and wonderful goal celebrations - this one appeared to be him riding a horse, although it could have been misconstrued to be one of a number of things.

He has also celebrated by doing the running man, the macarena, the worm, stroking the new claret carpet at the London Stadium, and rolling around on the floor like Homer Simpson. He's a man of many talents.

West Ham fans will be hoping they see another classic Antonio celebration when they face Leicester on Monday.

Not only because it could help their side to their second win of the season, but also so they can officially say that Antonio is one of their best goalscoring right-backs/left-backs/left-wingers/right-wingers/strikers of all time.

It's a bit of a mouthful, we know, but he's had quite the journey to wear West Ham's number nine shirt.

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