Mr Wright: The Explosive Autobiography of Ian Wright (Hardcover)

Sharp as a tick, and a no-nonsense, goal-grabbing, livewire striker with electric pace; a rifling penalty taker, defender’s nightmare, and a role model for youngster as well as a fashion guru and swooning ladies’ pin-up.

That’s the one and only Ian Wright. Otherwise known as Mr Wright.

Spotted playing park’s football in his mid-twenties, Wright proved to be a late striker when he joined Crystal Palace in 1985, but his rise since then has been meteoric. Little wonder Nike wanted him to endorse their products. Remember the headlines behind the posters ‘Behind every great goalkeeper there’s a ball from Ian Wright’? As winner of the Golden Boot award for 1991/92, Wright snatched first prize from Gary Lineker with virtually the last kick of the season.

Wright does not forget where he comes from — coincidentally the same South London estate as his friend and former clubmate David Rocaste — and it was a big decision of his to move across the Thames to join Arsenal in a GBP2.5 million transfer deal. At Highbury, he has been the club’s top scorer ever since, his goals instrumental in leading the Gunners to a unique Cub ‘Double’ in 1992 and a European Cup-Winner’s Cup trophy two years later.

Despite frustrating times on the substitutes’ bench for England, Wright has kept up the pressure for a regular place in the starting line-up. Now playing better than ever in a revitalised Arsenal team containing stars such as Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt, Ian Wright is an inspiration for countless thousands, young and old, both inside and outside the game which he lights up as few others have done.