Stephen Wright (English footballer)
Stephen John Wright ( born February 8, 1980 in Bootle, Liverpool, England) is an English footballer.
Sports career
Liverpool FC
As a youth player in 1996 joined the Stephen Wright in June of Liverpool on - despite the fact that he had been since his childhood supporter of local rivals Everton. In August 1997 he was promoted to the professional section of the club and sat on 24 November 1998 at the UEFA Cup match against Celta Vigo for the first time on the bench.
To get match practice, he was loaned in the 1999/2000 season twice to Crewe Alexandra in the second division and spent there each successful short time as a regular player. On 29 November 2000 he finally came for Liverpool on his debut and was part of the team that defeated Stoke City in the League Cup 8-0. Wright had been doing in to replace Markus Babbel at halftime. It was followed by four more missions for Liverpool, including an appearance on February 2001, his future club Sunderland at the Stadium of Light mattered.
The skilled central defender and U-21 international joined during the 2001/ 02 season on the right side position and was able to establish there always better in the team. His first red card in the game against Charlton Athletic at The Valley Stadium followed just three days later, the first goal for Liverpool in a 2-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Sunderland
Since Wright ultimately the final breakthrough but should not succeed, he joined in August 2002 in respect of a total transfer volume of three million British pounds - and an immediate payment of £ 1.5 million - to the league rivals FC Sunderland. There he received the jersey with the number 2 and was instantly recognizable as a replacement for the FC Basel migrated Bernt Haas on his position of right defender to regulars. His uncompromising and two combat-oriented style of play made him, although at first to be a crowd pleaser, but after a poor run of the club, he also was a result of significantly decreasing shape in the center of criticism. The Sunderland got off with only 19 points in the entire championship round, with coach Peter Reid had already been released a few weeks after his obligation of Wright and his successor Howard Wilkinson had survived only five months in this office.
As the successor of Wilkinson finally a former Irish coach was hired with Mick McCarthy, who often rotated in the season 2003/ 04 on the right back position between Wright and Darren Williams. When the club again showed continuous good performance, even Wright could stabilize his performances and shot on 25 August 2003 at the Stadium of Light for Sunderland against Watford FC 's first goal.
However, the hope of an immediate return to league football had to be buried, because Sunderland had lost in the play-off game against Crystal Palace. Although McCarthy strengthened his squad among other things, the obligation of the law defender Mark Lynch of Manchester United, Wright remained the first choice in his position. After a weak start to the season of FC Sunderland returned in 2005 by winning the second division championship in the Premier League back and criticized the former violently Wright has now praised for its not unimportant role in the promotion race.
This positive sign for another good performance in major league football were, however, very quickly a setback, as Wright drew upon a serious knee injury that forced him to just one game at a six -month break. In his comeback on February 4, 2006, he was sent off against West Ham United and retired in training to an ankle injury that required surgery. This meant for Wright after just two games, the premature end of a season in which the FC Sunderland adopted with a negative yield points from the English elite class again.
Successor Mick McCarthy was eventually whose former team-mate Niall Quinn, who should occupy mainly the office of club chairman and was later to give the business to coach Roy Keane. Quinn decided in the first few games at first for Wright not to set up and put the midfielder Rory Delap on its position. At his first game after seven months Wright came back in the 2:3 defeat against Plymouth Argyle on 12 August 2006, but was injured after two more games in the match against Bury FC again. This he finally lost his starting place against Nyron Nosworthy and the meantime loaned Danny Simpson to the position of right-back.
Stoke City
On 3 August 2007 Wright was loaned for a period of five months in the second division club Stoke City.
More stations
Wright played in the course of his career for the Brentford FC, Hartlepool United and Wrexham FC.