Michail Antonio Joins Watford on Free Transfer
Watford have rolled the dice on experience and personality, signing former West Ham United forward Michail Antonio on a free transfer.
The 36-year-old, who became a cult figure at the London Stadium, has agreed a one-year deal at Vicarage Road after spending the past month training under Alessio Dionisi. He will wear the number 18 shirt and becomes the Hornets’ 12th signing of the summer.
“Watford is a big club and hopefully I can come in and bring success and help wherever I can,” Antonio told the club’s website.
From car crash to Championship return
Antonio’s arrival comes at the end of a turbulent 12 months. His last senior appearance for West Ham came in a 3-1 defeat at Leicester City on 3 December 2024. Four days later, he suffered a broken leg in a car crash, an injury that threatened to derail the final stretch of his career.
Released by West Ham in June 2025 after a decade of service, Antonio went back to familiar surroundings to rebuild. He trained with the Hammers, featured twice for their under-21s in Premier League 2, and then looked set for a Premier League lifeline.
Leicester brought him in to train last December. Brentford then moved close to signing him, only for a torn calf muscle on the eve of the deal to kill the move. Another door shut. Another rehab.
He eventually resurfaced in Qatar with Al-Sailiya, making just four appearances and last playing in April. The minutes were limited, but the search for one more proper stage did not stop.
Dionisi’s gamble up front
That stage is now Vicarage Road. Antonio has been working with Watford for the last month and has done enough to convince Dionisi he can still handle the pace and grind of the Championship.
The deal has been announced subject to international clearance, which the club hope will arrive in time for him to be involved in Saturday’s home game against Stoke City.
Watford sit 12th in the table after six matches under their new head coach, with a perfectly even record: two wins, two draws, two defeats. The squad has been heavily refreshed and Antonio’s signing adds another seasoned option to a dressing room in transition.
Full circle in the EFL
Antonio’s return to English league football brings his career back to familiar territory. Before his move to West Ham in September 2015, he built his reputation in the EFL with spells at Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest, a route that hardened his game and made him one of the Premier League’s most awkward forwards to face.
Now, after a broken leg, a torn calf, a brief stint in Qatar and a series of near-moves, he walks back into a division he knows well, at a club searching for momentum.
If his body holds and his instincts remain sharp, Watford may have found the kind of streetwise forward who can tilt tight Championship games their way.
