Black History Month Players: Ian Wright
As October is Black History Month in the UK, I have spent this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link. But today's post and thread on X, which will sadly be the last of this month and with West Ham playing Arsenal in the Carabao Cup tomorrow night is on a bonafide footballing legend, Ian Wright.
Born on the 3rd of November 1963 in South London, Wright grew up having a troubled childhood with an abusive stepfather and found that football, whether he was watching or playing it, was often his only solace. Watching his heroes as a youngster such as Garth Crooks, Laurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Pele in the 1970s and early 1980s, Wright was inspired, stating in an interview: They were in the limelight and you'd say, God, they've made it! They were the ones that made me want to be a footballer", making Wright more determined to make something of himself through his footballing ability. However, trails at Southend & Brighton would not result in anything & left him disillusioned.
Hoping another opportunity might lie in his future, Wright began playing amateur football for Lewisham side Ten-em-bee, Wright would work as a labourer and plasterer on building sites to make ends meet. But with money tight and struggling to make ends meet, Wright was sent to prison for 2 weeks in 1982 at the age of 18 after being found driving a car without tax or insurance. Wright hated prison & said it was his experience there that changed his life for the better.
Now determined to be a successful footballer, Wright was signed by the semi-professional club Greenwich Borough at the age of 21 in 1985. He would only play half a dozen games for the side before being scouted by Crystal Palace, finally becoming a professional footballer at the age of 21. Signed by Crystal Palace in exchange for supplying Greenwich Borough with weightlifting equipment, Wright showed what was to come scoring 9 goals in his first season. However, he would truly become a deadly striker when Crystal Palace signed Mark Bright in 1986. As the “Wright & Bright” partnership tore its way through defences, Wright would become one of the deadliest strikers in football, scoring 118 goals in 277 games for the South London Club in a 6-year spell that saw Wright and Palace win the full members cup in 1991 & a runners-up medal in the 1990 FA cup. Wright is still adored by palace fans having been named the club's player of the century in 1999 and in their all-time greatest team in 2005 to celebrate the club’s 100th anniversary.
During his final season with Palace, Wright would earn his first England cap in February 1991 at the age of 27. He would go on to only win 33 caps for England, only scoring 9 goals in a 7-year international career. More suprisingly, he was often snubbed in favour of less prolific strikers such as Nigel Clough (I know... shocking) and never made a major international tournament squad for England in his career. As the most prolific strikers of the early 90s and England in a subsequent freefall in the same period, perhaps selecting Wrighty more might have improved England's fortunes, but there again, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Wright then moved to Arsenal for a then-record fee of £2.5m. At Arsenal, Wright would truly peak as a footballer, becoming the then-all-time record goal scorer for the club with 185 goals in 288 games. He would never score less than 10 goals in a season in 7 years with the club, with Wright breaking the 30-goal barrier five times in six seasons between 1992-1997, with a career-high of 35 goals in the 1993-94 season, with his goalscoring prowess celebrated by sports company Nike, who Wright advertised for, with the campaign slogan: "Behind every great goalkeeper, there's a ball from Ian Wright". During his time with Arsenal, Wright would win 2 FA cups in 1993 and 1998, a league cup in 1993, the European cup winners cup in 1994 and eventually would add a league title to that in his final year with the club in 1998. He is still an Arsenal legend to this day and is considered one of the club’s greatest-ever players, who voted him 4th in a 2008 poll of the 50 Greatest Gunners.
Wright would then move to West Ham in July 1998 for £500,000. At 34, the best years of Wright’s goalscoring ability was behind him, but he still had the goalscoring touch as he scored 9 goals in 26 games, being a key part of the team that finished 5th in the league that season and would also be part of the side that won the 1999 Intertoto cup. After leaving West Ham in October 1999, Wright would see out the last months of his career with brief spells playing for Celtic, Nottingham Forest & Burnley before retiring at 35 in 2000. He would retire with 324 goals in 624 games. Which isn’t bad for a man who didn’t start playing professional football until he was 21.
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| Yes, finally a Hammers Historian post about me! |
Since retiring, Wright has been a regular feature on TV, whether as a TV personality or as a football pundit, regularly featuring on match of the day. But Wright is a very busy man who has interests in many other avenues. Firstly, Wright is a vocal figure in the fight against racism in football, having suffered with it from his days at Palace where he said it disturbed him that the older pros could be so openly racist towards him. Wright has also recently launched a campaign to educate young people about British black history & black role models in British society with an emphasis on those who have stood up in the fight against racism and inspired others to do the same. With his very public voice, Wright has stated that he’ll “take any opportunity to speak out if I can”. And this is not just limited to racism as Wright will speak out about any issue or cause he believes deserves attention.
Wright is involved with a number of charity foundations including the Street Elite, a charity focused on educating young adults that helps them find jobs and better forms of education & the Team Margot foundation, a charity that helps with child cancer patients. He is also a patron of the African-Caribbean Leukemia Trust as well as a supporter of disadvantaged footballers within the BAME community.
Wright is also a huge vocal advocate of women’s football, which has seen a huge rise in coverage in the past 5 years. Having been a long-term supporter of the wildly successful Arsenal’s women team, Wright was at the forefront of the huge and long overdue coverage of the women’s euros last summer, where he used his platform to push a necessity to ensure girls get the chance to play football and encourage the next generation of footballers to emerge. After England’s victory in the semi-final of the Euros, Wright stated "We've got to make sure that they are able to play and get the opportunity to do this because it's going to inspire a lot of people”, with England winning the Euros no doubt inspiring a new generation.
Whilst there is much to say about Ian Wright, it’s fair to say that he’s used his platform to promote causes and issues that he believes deserve the attention. And despite doing the wrong thing once, he’s definitely living by the words of his song these days to do the wright thing!
Thanks for reading today's post. Today's sources were:
This article highlighting Wrighty's campaign to educate young people on British Black History: https://versus.uk.com/2022/10/black-history-month-black-joy-not-black-sorrow-ian-wright-raising-generation-gamechangers/
and this article on his comments regarding the future of Women's football following the Euros last summer:
And once again, thanks for reading not only today's post but all of the posts and threads that I've published this month. I know to some this is merely a series of blog posts giving potted histories of football players who have played for West Ham, but this is hopefully to someone out there a gateway into further educating themselves on certain issues that have been addressed during this series. I don't claim to have the same lived experiences as many of these players, but I try to educate myself to offer empathy, understanding and support to be an ally where I can and where I'm needed on issues that address racial injustice and bigotry. Education is the most powerful tool that we have and if we all educate ourselves to be better allies and offer our support when needed, then we can make the world a better place.
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