A Life in Football: My Autobiography

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Ian Wright, Arsenal legend, England striker and TV pundit extraordinaire, is one of the most interesting and relevant figures in modern football.

Wright loves the role that he has been given in Okwonga’s storytelling. “The great thing about the book,” he says, “is it’s kind of me talking to my younger self. And Jerome doesn’t always respond to my character, despite all the help I’m trying to give. I like that. Because part of being a mentor is not pressuring people but giving them some space. That’s the kind of advice I would have wanted.”

Working with Wright an ‘honour’

This book is so riddled with inconsistencies and confusing that it turns what should be an enjoyable read into a jumbled, muddled mess. 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.

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.” of the best new books for autumn from Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club to Caitlin Moran’s More Than A Woman ‘Football was my only escape’Over the years, watching Wright as a pundit on TV, he’s often seemed to me to have a kind of introspection that his fellow ex-players don’t quite share. He plays up to the caricature of the great enthusiast but occasionally he seems to drift off into a little private reverie. At those moments you have that sense that while for most players football was what they did, for him it was always more something that he was, heart and soul. You wonder how much that is tied up with how close he came to not making it. 'When you are through on goal, Ian,' Mr Pigden had said, 'slow down, pass the ball into the net, score beautiful goals' 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?” As time went by we spoke,” he says, slowly wringing his hands: “She said she had her own problems as well. Whatever her problems were I always wanted to find out, but she was never forthcoming. She didn’t want to speak about those things. I’m not going to put a spotlight on her. I learned to deal with it myself because at the end of the day, you can only heal yourself.”

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? Instead of answering that question, he interviews former abusers struggling to do just that. There’s Wes, who’s working with therapists to see that being physically intimidating to his partner was abusive. There’s Naomi, abused by her ex, who in turn became abusive to her daughter, before realising that her boozing and bawling served no one, least of all herself. 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. Then there was the recollection of the domestic violence suffered by his mother at the hands of his stepfather, a pain that was triggered, as it was always triggered for him, by the first bars of the Ike and Tina Turner song River Deep – Mountain High, one of his chosen discs, a record that always caused his mother to break down. “My stepfather was a big, growly voiced, gambling, weed-smoking, angry man, who frightened me,” Wright said. “My mum was four foot 11 and he was six four. I saw what he did to her. When he used to be manhandling my mum my brother would cover my ears, so I couldn’t hear it.”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.