Ian Wright

Ian Wright

Ian Edward Wright, MBE, is an English former professional footballer and television and radio personality. He played for Crystal Palace, Arsenal and West Ham United. He is Arsenal’s second-highest scorer of all time and Crystal Palace’s third-highest. He has been active in the media, usually in football-related TV and radio shows. His sons, Bradley and Shaun Wright-Phillips, are both professional footballers.

About Ian Wright in brief

Summary Ian WrightIan Edward Wright, MBE, is an English former professional footballer and television and radio personality. He played for Crystal Palace, Arsenal and West Ham United. Wright is Arsenal’s second-highest scorer of all time and Crystal Palace’s third-highest. He also played in the Scottish Premier League for Celtic and the Football League for Burnley and Nottingham Forest. He has been active in the media, usually in football-related TV and radio shows. His sons, Bradley and Shaun Wright-Phillips, are both professional footballers. He is currently a commentator for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. He won 33 caps for the English national team, and scored 9 international goals. In 2005 he was voted into Arsenal’s Centenary XI and was named as their ‘Player of the Century’ He was awarded an MBE for his services to football in 1991. He was also awarded an OBE for services to the game in 1998. He currently lives in London with his wife and two sons. He and his wife have two sons, Shaun and Bradley, who are also professional football players. His son Bradley is also a professional footballer and played for West Ham in the Premier League in the 2010-11 season. The couple have a son, Bradley, and a daughter, Shaun-A-Wright, who plays for West Bromwich Albion in the Championship. Wright has also played for non-league sides Greenwich Borough and Bermondsey-based amateur Sunday league club Ten-em-Bee. He scored 387 goals in 581 league games for seven clubs in Scotland and England.

He spent six years with Crystal Palace and seven years with Arsenal as a forward. With Arsenal he lifted the Premier league title, both the major domestic cup competitions, and the European Cup Winners Cup. Wright became renowned for his deadly striking ability, as shown when he scored a hat-trick in just eighteen minutes in Palace’s penultimate game of the 1990–91 season away to Wimbledon. Wright scored 117 goals in 253 starts and 24 substitute appearances over six seasons for The Eagles, making him the club’s post-war’s record goalscorer and third on the all-time list. He made a dramatic appearance as a’super-sub’ in the 1990 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. He equalised for Palace a few minutes after coming onto the field forcing extra time, then put them ahead in extra time. The next season, he gained full international honours, as the club finished in their highest ever league position of third place in the top flight. Wright described his teacher Sydney Pigden as ‘the first positive male figure that I had in my life’ as a teenager. In 1985 Wright was signed by semi-professional Greenwich Borough and got paid £30 a week. After just six or seven matches, he was spotted by a Crystal Palace scout after a tip-off from Dulwich Hamlet manager Billy Smith and was invited for a trial at Selhurst Park. He signed a professional contract for Palace in August 1985, just three months short of his 22nd birthday.