Liverpool beware - The Beast is coming for you

Not many League Two footballers get stopped on the streets of Los Angeles and asked for their autograph. Not many players from the bottom rung of the English professional ladder get personal invitations to Miles Kane gigs, mix with Coronation Street stars and have Rio Ferdinand and Ian Wright on speed-dial. Adebayo Akinfenwa does.

Sixteen stone of muscle and charisma, the AFC Wimbledon striker gunning for Liverpool in the FA Cup on Monday has become a global phenomenon following his presence as “the world’s strongest player’’ in the Fifa video-game series. “I’ve never got to the Promised Land of the ‘Prem’ but – oh, my days – the attention I get.’’ Akinfenwa laughed as he sat in the middle bar at Kingsmeadow Stadium on Friday. “I’ve been stopped in LA, in Vegas. It’s mind-boggling. I’m a brother from East London so to get all this attention and accolades from people. There’s Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney but people want an Akinfenwa shirt. I’m blessed.

“I went on Twitter and had 5,000 followers the first day. Now I’m on 110,000 followers and I’m like: ‘ You know I play League Two?!’ I’m meeting Rio Ferdinand, Ian Wright. Artists like Catfish, Miles Kane. These people are in my phone-book now. I have conversations on Twitter. ‘How you doing Beast?’ ‘Yeah, fine man’. I went to see Miles Kane – the only black person in the audience. I was jumping up and down. People from Coronation Street. It’s just mad.’’

He can bench-press 180kg. “There’s nobody here at the club who could test me. I could probably bench-press four of them at the same time. When they come into the gym and there’s a bench-press set up, they go, ‘Ah, The Beast has been in’. I like going in there, getting a sweat on, heartbeat going. I’ve got two daughters so I’ve got to stay big for when they try and bring boyfriends home. Just letting them know that daddy’s at the door!”

Akinfenwa’s more than muscle. “I come from an inner-city school, an estate. I want to be teaching kids that you can achieve your dreams, that just because you come from Hackney doesn’t mean you can’t be prime minister. Just because you’re short doesn’t mean you can’t be a basketballer.

“All the time, even until recently, people were saying to me: ‘You’re too big to play football.’ It used to get my back up. I’m from big stock: Sixteen and a half stone is my fighting weight. For a long time, I was like, ‘I can actually play. I’m actually good’. People say, ‘He’s not quick’. Yes, I know. I’m different to the eye and with the way I play.

“I admire Didier Drogba as a person as well as a player. Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch. I like people who are different from the mould. People say a footballer has to be 11st and 6ft. It’s a preconception. Growing up I was rejected from clubs, who said ‘you’re too big’. I’d think: ‘You can’t tell me I can’t achieve my dream.’ These were Aston Villa, Leicester and Bolton. I turned down a trial at Arsenal to go to Bolton. Then I went back to Arsenal and they weren’t having it.’’

He spent nine months at Watford before, having turned 18, his brother got him a deal to play for FK Atlantas in Lithuania.

“I was the first black person in the league. The first game they were shouting: ‘Zigger, zigger, zigger, shoot the

f------ n-----.’ They were standing right by the corner-flag, making ‘ooh, ooh, ooh’ noises.

“I thought big guys wouldn’t disrespect me like this at home, never mind these skinny little guys in Doc Martens. It was a thousand singing it, half my own fans. I got brought off at half-time and the roar from my own fans. ‘What have I got myself into?’ And I signed for three years.’’

That night, he phoned his brother. “You can either come home and let them win or stay and show them,” his brother advised. “I remember waking the next morning thinking, ‘He’s right, no one can chase me out of here’,’’ recalled Akinfenwa. “That’s why I think God moves in mysterious ways because I scored a lot of goals there and we got to the cup final, like the FA Cup, and I scored the only goal, we won 1-0. And it changed. I still got racial abuse away but at home I was a miniature Beckham. I opened stores. I didn’t pay in restaurants.

“I thought, ‘There’s nothing I can’t deal with in life because you’ve dealt with that’. This is why I’m relaxed. That’s the toughest I endured. Your words can’t kill me. I hear it when I’m playing: ‘You’re a fat Eddie Murphy.’

“Now I think if they aren’t getting at me I’m doing something wrong. People give negative energy because they feel threatened.”

He has matured himself as a player, citing one particular game for Torquay United against Sheffield Wednesday on Aug 14, 2004. “Everyone was telling me about Guy Branston, massive head, wins balls in the air, you’re going to have to be on it. ‘All right, cool, I’ve got it.’ First goal-kick, he’s standing beside me and said: ‘You work in McDonald’s. I’ll take you after the game.’ I was looking at him, thinking: ‘Who are you are talking to?’ He stepped in front of me and headed the ball.

“So I’m chasing him about, saying: ‘Who are you talking to?’ He’s just blanking me. Next one, he’s come and said: ‘F------ hell, you don’t eat salad do you?’ I looked at him, and he headed the ball. He did this the whole game, bantering me for fun. In my head, I’m going to fight this guy full-time at the end.’’

Booked, Akinfenwa got taken off after 58 minutes as Torquay went on to lose 4-2. “They blow the whistle and I go up to him and say: ‘Let’s do this now.’ He’s gone: ‘Big man, good game, all the best for the season, major love.’ I’m still fuming. ‘What? We’re not going to fight?’ He said: ‘Mentally, I totally messed with your mind. All you’re doing is looking at me and I’m heading the ball.’

“He went to Oldham the next season and he tried to do the same thing. It was totally the reverse. I totally blanked him out. It made me realise the mind is so powerful.’’

He aims to focus that power, physical and mental, on distinguished FA Cup guests. “We’re going to cause Liverpool trouble. We have confidence and Liverpool at the moment haven’t. We are not deluding ourselves: we still have to play the best we can play and Liverpool have to be below par for us to beat them.

“This is the best time to play Liverpool. They have weaknesses: they are not defending crosses and we are good at putting balls in the box and getting on to seconds. We are hoping we can write a story against Liverpool. This club has done it before.”

In the background, a screen has highlights from Wembley 1988 on a loop. “That’s what is special about the FA Cup, anything can happen,’’ reflected Akinfenwa on the Crazy Gang beating the Culture Club. “Liverpool have pressure on them, they won’t be able to do their passing game on our pitch, it’s tight. It all favours us in that sense. Something is written in the stars for a Cup upset and we are hoping it is us.

“Liverpool were my team as a kid. John Barnes was my idol. I played nothing like him. In the playground, I’d be John Barnes. This is my biggest game. I have four kids and one on they way and I can tell them: ‘Daddy played against Liverpool.’ I haven’t got a goal celebration planned.

“I don’t know where the emotions will take me. I could do a jig, a bicep, or a [trademark] Beast Mode On slam. I would love that dilemma.’’

He is genuinely saddened by news of Steven Gerrard’s decision to leave Anfield. “The word ‘legend’ gets bandied around and I know it’s a cliche but that guy is a certified legend. I’m all about this BMO mindset – defy the limitations people put on you. Time and time again Gerrard has defied the limitations. He’s truly inspirational.

“I’d want his shirt, want to give him a hug and shake his hand. I hope he comes. It could potentially be his last game in the FA Cup. For him not to turn up, and Liverpool get knocked out, then that’s him done in the FA Cup. I hope he’s shaking our hands saying, ‘Well done for beating us’.”