Background and career
Shaun Cameron Wright-Phillips (born 25 October 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger. A Nottingham Forest youth product, he spent 13 seasons playing in the Premier League during spells with Manchester City, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. In 2015, he joined Major League Soccer club New York Red Bulls alongside his brother, Bradley. He joined Phoenix Rising FC in 2017. Wright-Phillips scored six goals in 36 appearances for the England national team, which included selection for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Shaun Cameron Wright-Phillips was born on 25 October 1981 in Greenwich, Greater London. He is the adopted son of former England international Ian Wright. Wright adopted the son of then-girlfriend Sharon Phillips, when Shaun was three years old. His younger brother, Bradley Wright-Phillips, is also a professional footballer and the all-time top scorer for the New York Red Bulls. Wright-Phillips grew up in Brockley and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in New Cross Gate. Wright-Phillips is of Trinidadian and Grenadian descent.
Wright-Phillips was released by Nottingham Forest aged 17 and Manchester City took him to Maine Road. He made his first-team debut as a 70th-minute substitute in the second leg of a League Cup match against Burnley on 24 August 1999, replacing Terry Cooke. His league debut came on 30 October at Port Vale. Brought on as substitute striker, he helped his team turn a 1–0 deficit into a 2–1 win. His shot resulted in the first Manchester City goal, which Wright-Phillips attempted to claim, though the strike was later credited as an own goal instead. He then started the next two matches in place of Paul Dickov, who was absent through injury. Once Dickov recovered, Wright-Phillips returned to the reserves, making only one further first team appearance that season. Wright-Phillips featured more regularly than the previous season but was still not fully established in the first team, making 12 starts and seven substitute appearances playing in a variety of attacking positions. Manchester City's stay in the Premier League was brief; at the end of the season they were relegated. Under Kevin Keegan, Wright-Phillips firmly established himself in the first team, not as a forward, but as a wing-back. Keegan was known for playing attacking football, and decided to use the attacking Wright-Phillips in a traditionally defensive position due to his mobility and dribbling ability. From 2000 to 2003, Wright-Phillips won Manchester City's Young Player of the Year award four times in succession, surpassing Steve Kinsey's record of three times. His response to comments regarding his success being paved by his father, saying in an interview with manchesteronline.co.uk: "The press brought up my adopted father's name. They relate to his name and that is fine by me – it comes with the name, but I will be my own man. I have made my own path and started to take my own steps."
On 18 July 2005, Wright-Phillips completed a £21 million move to Premier League champions Chelsea, returning to his native London. He joined the club on a five-year contract after agreeing to personal terms and passing a medical. He had previously said he would not leave Manchester City. His transfer was at the time the third biggest for an English player, after Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney. He made his debut on 7 August in the 2005 FA Community Shield, as a 69th-minute substitute for Arjen Robben in a 2–1 win over Arsenal. In October 2006, Wright-Phillips's father criticised Chelsea manager José Mourinho for not playing his son; he had started 12 Premier League games and played the full 90 minutes of none. His first goal for the club came in a 2–0 Champions League win over Levski Sofia on 5 December 2006, in his 52nd match and almost 17 months after his transfer. As 2006–07 progressed, Wright-Phillips picked up form and scored his first league goal against West Ham United on 18 April, following it up with his second in the same match. Subsequently, he started in several matches towards the end of the season including the 2007 FA Cup Final which Chelsea won. He was selected to play in the 2008 League Cup Final, which Chelsea lost to Tottenham Hotspur.
On 28 August 2008, he re-joined former club Manchester City on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £8.5 million. On his second debut, Wright-Phillips scored two goals against Sunderland in the 3–0 away win in the Premier League. His third goal for City came in a 6–0 victory over Portsmouth on 21 September 2008. On 29 October, Wright-Phillips swore at former Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate during Manchester City's 2–0 defeat to his club, after Southgate complained about Wright-Phillips appearing to go down too easily after a challenge. The 2009–10 season started very well for Wright-Phillips, setting up Emmanuel Adebayor's first goal for Man City in the third minute of a 2–0 win against Blackburn Rovers. He followed that up with a goal in a League Cup tie with Crystal Palace. Three weeks later against Arsenal, he set up a goal for Adebayor before scoring one for himself. He went on to score in successive home matches against Burnley and Hull City where he delivered an assist for Carlos Tevez's debut Man City goal. During his next game against Arsenal he scored in a 3–0 League Cup win which saw City progress to the tournament's semi finals. The 2010–11 season saw City win the 2010–11 FA Cup, and despite being left out of the squad for the final, he did contribute some appearances earlier in the cup run, including coming on as a substitute against Manchester United in the semi-final.
On 31 August 2011, the final day of the transfer window, Wright-Phillips signed for Queens Park Rangers (QPR) on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He made his full debut for QPR against Newcastle United on 12 September 2011, making the starting line-up and winning man of the match by supporters. He failed to score a goal for almost a year before scoring his first the following season for QPR against Walsall in the League Cup on 28 August 2012. His only goal for QPR in the Premier League came during the derby against former club Chelsea on 2 January 2013, which ended 1–0. After featuring even more sporadically during 2014–15, QPR announced that Wright-Phillips would be released from his contract in a batch of players that included fellow former England internationals Rio Ferdinand and Joey Barton.
