Ian Wright

Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer.

Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven years with the latter.

With Arsenal he lifted the Premier League title, both the major domestic cup competitions, and the European Cup Winners Cup.

Known for his speed, agility, finishing and aggression, he played 581 league games, scoring 287 goals for seven clubs in Scotland and England, while also earning 33 caps for the England national team, and scoring nine international goals.

Wright also played in the Premier League for West Ham United, the Scottish Premier League for Celtic and the Football League for Burnley and Nottingham Forest.

, he is Arsenal's second-highest scorer of all time and Crystal Palace's third-highest.

After retiring, he has been active in the media, usually in football-related TV and radio shows.

Two of his sons, Bradley and Shaun, are retired professional footballers.

Wright is the third son of Jamaican parents.

His father was absent from a young age, and he was brought up by his mother, Nesta, and an abusive stepfather.

Wright came to professional football relatively late.

Despite having had trials at Southend United and Brighton & Hove Albion during his teens, he was unable to attract sufficient interest to win a professional contract offer.

Reverting to playing for amateur and non-League teams, he was left disillusioned about his chances of a career as a professional footballer.

After a spell of poverty during which his wife was expecting their first child, Wright spent 32 days in Chelmsford Prison for failing to pay fines for driving without tax or insurance.

He recalls that after being locked in the cell, he burst into tears and vowed to God to do everything in his power to make it as a footballer.

Wright described his teacher Sydney Pigden as "the first positive male figure that I had in my life".

From being a teenager, until the age of 21, Wright played for Lewisham-based amateur Sunday league club Ten-em-Bee (a club his sons Brett and Shaun also later played for) becoming the top scorer in the London and Kent Border Sunday League.

In 1985 Wright was signed by semi-professional Greenwich Borough and got paid £30 a week.

After six or seven matches at Greenwich, Wright 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.

Having impressed then-manager Steve Coppell, he signed a professional contract with Palace in August 1985, just three months short of his 22nd birthday, the agreed fee being a set of weightlifting equipment.

He quickly made his mark in his first season, scoring nine goals to finish as Palace's second-highest scorer.

When Mark Bright arrived on the Palace scene the following year the duo soon established a successful striking partnership and it was largely their goals which took the club back to the top flight via the playoffs in 1989.

Wright was particularly instrumental that season, scoring 24 goals in the Second Division and a total of 33 in all competitions.

Wright was called up for England B duty in December 1989 but a twice-cracked shin bone reduced his initial impact in the First Division.

However, after recovering from the injury 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 putting them ahead in extra time.

The eventual score was 3–3, but Palace lost the replay 1–0.

The next season, he gained full international honours, and reached a hundred goals for Crystal Palace, as the club finished in their highest ever league position of third place in the top flight.

He also scored twice as Palace beat Everton to win the Full Members Cup at Wembley.

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 in all competitions, making him the club's record post-war goalscorer and third on the all-time list.

Wright signed for Arsenal in September 1991 for £2.5m, which at the time was a club record fee.

He scored on his debut against Leicester City in a League Cup tie, produced a hat-trick on his league debut against Southampton, and in the final match of the season, scored another hat-trick against the Saints to take his total to 31 goals in all competitions.

Wright's 29 league goals (24 for Arsenal, 5 for Palace) were enough to make him the league's top scorer.

, only Wright and Teddy Sheringham have led the top-flight scoring charts having scored for two clubs during the season in question.

Wright went on to be the club's top scorer for six seasons in a row.

In 2005, he was voted into their Centenary XI and was named as their "Player of The Century".

In December 2023, during an appearance on The Overlap YouTube channel hosted by Gary Neville, Wright revealed he was bullied by teammate Jim Cannon until Cannon's departure from the club in 1988.

Wright voiced his experiences with Cannon at the time to Coppell, which included Cannon berating Wright for eating communal food and Cannon "two-foot jumping [Wright]" in the back after he scored past Cannon during a traning session.

Cannon later disputed parts of Wright's account but admitted to giving him "a little slap".