London, September 21 (BUS): Before every match, Evan Toni receives a letter from his mother.
The book says “Be a beast”.
This is what he’s trying to do. Whether it’s for Brentford as one of the Premier League’s leading scorers or, in the next few days, as an England rookie, reports Reuters.
Toni got a call-up from his country last week for the first time in any age group, a bonus for scoring five goals in seven matches for Brentford in the Premier League this season. For a man famous for being in the ear of referees on the court, he was momentarily lost for words.
The first thing he did was make a conference call with his family – his mother, father and two sisters.
“They were screaming for 20 minutes,” Tony recalls on Tuesday after his first training session with England. “My father would whistle his horn wherever he was – people must have thought he was going crazy. Yes, it was a great moment for my family.”
For Tony, this was an invitation that he cherished not only himself, but those close to him cherished.
His mother, who used to skip meals to make sure her son was eating enough before playing soccer. His older sister who was going to take him to train and do her university work is waiting for him. Or his father, who was driving Tony up and down the country to play matches.
“It’s nice that I’m now sitting here at the top of England,” said Tony. “But it wasn’t just me who did it.”
Perhaps the 26-year-old should give Tony more credit, given the setbacks he has had to recover from in his career.
Especially when he failed to make it to Newcastle and was sent on six separate loan spells to lower league clubs across the country, from Barnsley to Shrewsbury to Scunthorpe.
A little over two years ago, Tony has been playing in the English third tier for Peterborough, still waiting to break into the big time. That came with Brentford, who helped promote him to the Premier League last year. Now the tall Toni is one of the best all-round strikers in England and has impressed not only with his goals but because of his vision, aerobic ability, team play and impeccable penalty technique.
England manager Gareth Southgate couldn’t take heed, especially with Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin – the replacement for chosen striker Harry Kane at last year’s European Championship – who is currently injured and not many strikers got their hands on selection.
Tony isn’t lacking in confidence either, saying he’s never felt under pressure at any point in his career.
“The more pressure I have, the better my performance. The bigger the stage, the more likely I am to perform,” he said. “My dad always tells me to get in every game, there is no pressure. Do what you do best.”
Southgate appears to have said similar things to Tony when the forward arrived for training on Tuesday.
“Just be yourself, you’re here for a reason, you’re not here to make up the numbers by any means,” Tony said, when asked what Southgate had told him. “There are the main things he asked me to do. I will do it and hopefully it will be enough to keep me in the squad for the World Cup.”
In fact, Tony could not have tuned his timing for England better. After this international break, when England play Italy and Germany in the Nations League qualifying matches, England will appear at the World Cup in Qatar.
Play well in the coming days – the best Tony can realistically hope for is a few minutes on the bench – and he can earn himself a seat on the plane to Qatar.
How’s that for a career arc?