When Ian Wright was growing up in South London, his dad had
When Ian Wright was growing up in South London, his dad had left when he was just 18 months old, and the man who came into his life afterwards made his childhood miserable.
His stepfather was a heavy drinker and gambler who regularly mistreated Wright and his mum.
“He was a nasty piece of work.”
His mum was not particularly affectionate either, and Wright grew up feeling unwanted in his own home.
“I was watching other people in households getting love, but I wasn’t getting anything.”
He could not remember being hugged as a child, and for years he struggled with the anger that came from how he had been treated.
But one thing he could never understand was why somebody would come into a family and treat another person’s child that way.
“And I could not understand, even with having nothing, how somebody could come in and treat a child like my stepdad treated me.”
That stayed with him as he got older.
And in 1982, when Wright was just 19 years old, he started a relationship with a young woman called Sharon.
Sharon already had a little boy called Shaun, who was approaching his third birthday.
Wright was still trying to make his way in football, had no professional contract and was struggling to find any real direction in his life.
But when it came to Shaun, he had already made his mind up.
“I was 19, didn’t have a job, and no means, but I took him on because it was the right thing to do.”
Wright adopted Shaun and took responsibility for raising him, despite barely having enough money to look after himself.
“I never thought twice about it.”
“He was a lovely kid.”
Wright had spent years trying to get into professional football, going for trials at clubs and being rejected again and again.
He had also been getting himself into trouble away from football.
And in 1982, he ended up being sent to Chelmsford Prison for two weeks over unpaid driving fines.
“So there I am, 19 years old, with a young son at home.”
Wright had never experienced anything like prison before.
“My life has never gotten lower than that.”
When Wright came out, he decided he needed to change his life.
And the first thing he did was give up trying to become a professional footballer.
He started learning a trade, first bricklaying and then plastering, before eventually finding work doing maintenance at Tunnel Refineries in Greenwich.
By then, he and Sharon also had another little boy, Bradley.
Wright was still playing football at weekends, but providing for Shaun and Bradley had become his priority.
“I’m going to just work hard and try and help my boys.”
He wanted them to have the sort of childhood he had never experienced.
“I didn’t want any of my kids to not be loved, like how I felt.”
And with Shaun in particular, Wright was determined that having a stepfather would never mean going through what he had experienced.
“When I started going out with his mum, I knew I wanted to treat him like my son.”
“He is my son.”
Football eventually came back into Wright’s life when Crystal Palace offered him a trial in 1985.
From there, his career took him to Arsenal, where he became the club’s record goalscorer, and eventually to the England team.
But Shaun was starting to make his own way in football as well.
He had been released by Nottingham Forest as a youngster before joining Manchester City, where he worked his way through the youth teams and into the first team.
By November 2000, Shaun was playing Premier League football for City, and Wright was watching him from the stands.
“I’m very proud of him.”
And in March 2004, Shaun received his first call-up to the senior England squad for a friendly against Sweden.
“As a dad I am so proud.”
“He’s done it all of his own back.”
He went on to play for Chelsea, returned to Manchester City and represented England at the 2010 World Cup, finishing with 36 international appearances.
Years later, Wright still spoke about Shaun with the same pride he had felt when he first started making his way in football.
“It chokes me when I think how he’s grown up and succeeded.”
