276°
Posted 20 hours ago

A Life in Football: My Autobiography

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

Not many years later, Match of the Day viewers would bear witness to the consequences of that abuse. The scared, anxious boy became, in part, an angry if successful footballer. In a montage, we see Wright squaring up to Chelsea’s Dennis Wise, scything down defenders and – oh dearie me – getting restrained by a teammate to stop him thumping the ref.

This article was amended on 12 September 2021. Palace lost the 1990 FA cup final in a replay, not in extra time of the first game as an earlier version indicated. Which nations have North Korean embassies? Which region has the highest number of death metal bands per capita? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the 'wrong' side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild? For graphic design enthusiasts, compulsive Wikipedia readers and those looking for the sort of gift they buy for someone else and wind up keeping for themselves, this book will change the way you see the world and your place in it. As Wright closes the door to the house in Merritt Road for the last time, he says: “There’s no love here, that’s for sure.” Oh, but there was once. Little Maurice would place his hands over Ian’s ears to stop him hearing his stepdad punch and strangle his mother. The point for Wright in dragging up this past is to highlight how damaging it is for children to witness domestic abuse. In the 70s, one former social worker tells Wright, children who witnessed their mothers being beaten by their fathers were not thought to be traumatised as a result. Only earlier this year, thanks to the Domestic Abuse Act, was the law changed so children can be regarded as victims of domestic abuse. That reform is necessary, not sufficient. “One million kids are living with domestic abuse,” the social worker says. “That has to change.”And then there were the Saturday nights when Ian would get excited to hear the Match of the Day theme tune. “My stepdad would make me turn away to face the wall when it was on. Just because he could.” If Ian tried to peek, his stepdad would scream at him. It is a shame Wright’s mum was too frail to take part in this programme. I wonder if she will watch it, and how she will feel about her son saying how much he adores her and yet how much he hated her. I wonder, too, what his estranged stepdad will make of this. Most of all, I wonder if Wright, who tells us he forgave his mum, could ever forgive his stepdad. That would be the hardest work of all. Writing for sports media platform The Players Tribune, Wright said: “My stepdad…was a weed-smoking, gambling, coming-home-late, gambling-his-wages, womanizing kind of guy. He was rough with my mum and rough with all of us kids. And I don’t know why, but he didn’t like me in particular…He’d go out of his way to be cruel”.

After all, until he made this programme, Wright had never sought therapy or talked about his childhood abuse with those who were in that room half a century ago. Nonetheless, he has become a loving and beloved husband and dad, so far as I can tell. On Match of the Day now, he cuts a mellow figure. How come he, rather than perpetuating the cycle of abuse, broke it? Last year, the Match of the Day pundit opened up about his troubled childhood and “cruel” stepfather, describing football as his “only escape”. We meet as racism in football is, once more, dominating the headlines, after a fan was accused of making monkey noises at the Manchester United player Fred during the recent Manchester derby. Wright is clear that racism at football matches needs to be dealt with more vigorously. “Everybody talks about education and we do need to educate young people, but when you look at the people who are racially abusing players now, they’re older people, so education is wasted on those people. Those people need to be punished severely so it can be a deterrent, so people will see that when you racially abuse someone in this ground you are out for life.” The story is about struggling to grow up. Even being a gifted footballer is no escape route from the adversity that some young people face. Jerome is a victim of racism and domestic violence, and he also has to choose whether or not to follow his friends into dangerous and illegal situations. For Jerome, this means putting a football career on the line for the sake of his friends. The adversity Jerome faces is well-described, and is believable and dramatic. Jerome’s story is less about football and more about the importance of staying connected to one’s community. The joy and pleasure in Jerome’s life come from sharing food and listening to music with other members of his neighbourhood, from visiting the barber shop and making time for his mother.

He was advised, he says, that “management is really tough. ‘Why do you want to do that? Television’s waiting.’ And I listened. That’s the only thing I regret.” When we started out with the book,” Okwonga says, “Ian said he wanted it to be like therapy from the community.” He has tried to weave all the elements in that might support a child like Jerome: mentors from church; his kindly uncle at the barbershop; the friendly faces in the neighbourhood takeaway. And, of course, football. “There’s that great lyric by [the rapper] Dave,” Okwonga says. “‘It ain’t who came around but more about who stayed around.’ A lot of people come and go in a life like Jerome’s. Even though this is Ian Wright the famous footballer, who is to say he will stay around?” Ian will also frankly discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham deserves a statue, social media, why music matters, breaking Arsenal's goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks of Tottenham. In the wake of the incident, Gary Neville suggested Boris Johnson had fuelled racism with his rhetoric. Although Wright doesn’t disagree, he’s not sure how helpful this is. “Boris Johnson may be involved in some way, just because it’s intrinsically linked with the things he says and what he does. But you can’t really point at one person.”

If the domestic situation in the book mirrors Wright’s own, a lot of the detail of Jerome’s footballing life is closer to the stories of modern players. Okwonga has previously written a book about the England star Raheem Sterling, and both he and Wright admire the way that the England manager, Gareth Southgate, has encouraged his players to talk so openly about their “origin stories” in recent years, tales of struggle and tragedy (Sterling’s father was murdered in Jamaica when he was two years old) that help to give emotional context to their lucrative success. Ian Wright, Arsenal legend, England striker and TV pundit extraordinaire, is one of the most interesting and relevant figures in modern football.

Keep in touch

In his adult life, Wright has had plenty of opportunity to be that mentor. He is the father of eight kids from two marriages and other relationships. His elder sons Shaun (whom he adopted) and Bradley Wright-Phillips both became professional footballers, Shaun playing 36 times for England (three more caps than his old man). Whatever was going on in his life, Wright has, he says, always tried to be there for them – “kids need two things: love and education” – without being overbearing.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment