Shaun Wright-Phillips

Biography:

Shaun Cameron Wright-Phillips was born in Greenwich, London on the 25th October 1981. He is the son of former Arsenal and England striker, Ian Wright.

Shaun played with Nottingham Forest during his early teenage years before moving to Manchester City where he played within the Club’s Academy teams. He made his full debut for City in the Football League Cup against Burnley in August 1999, with his Football League debut coming soon after that when he  was a substitute against Port Vale.  In addition, Shaun helped the club to gain promotion from the Football League First Division to the Premier League at the end of season 2001/2 when the club scored over 100 goals, accumulating 99 points and winning the Football League Championship.

Shaun moved to Chelsea in July 2005 for a fee reported to be around £21 million but he failed to fully establish himself there. Indeed, in August 2008, he re-signed for City for a much-reduced fee (reported to be under £10 million). In his first game back with City, he scored twice in a 3-0 Premier League victory away against Sunderland. Although he established himself as a regular on his return to the club, season 2010/11 saw only limited opportunities for Shaun – resulting in a move to Queens Park Rangers.

 He made a total of 177 league appearances (plus 39 as a substitute) spanning both spells with City, scoring a total of 34 goals. He also, of course, played for City in the FA Cup (12 appearances plus 3 as substitute, scoring 2 goals), in the Football League Cup (15 appearances plus 4 as substitute, scoring 5 goals) and in European competition – the UEFA Cup - (19 appearances plus 5 as a substitute, scoring 5 goals). He left to join Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 2011.

Notable facts/stories:

Shaun became a hugely popular player amongst City fans and, indeed, earned himself the Club’s Young Player of the Year Award on four occasions between 2000 and 2003. He also won the Club’s main Player of the Year Award in 2004.

Non-City career (briefly):

He was selected to play for the England Under 21 team on 6 occasions, moving up to become a full England international in August 2004 when he made his debut for England against Ukraine (scoring one of England’s goals in a 3-0 win). He earned a total of 36 full England caps.

When he left Queens Park Rangers in 2015, he moved to New York Red Bulls and then Phoenix Rising FC in the USA. He announced his retirement from playing in August 2019.