Stephen Wright (born 27 August 1971) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Wright is currently the Head of Academy for

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Playing career

Club

Raised in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, Wright started his career with

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

– progressing through the ranks alongside

Eoin Jess Eoin Jess (born 13 December 1970) is a Scottish football coach and former player. As a player he was an attacking midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Coventry City and Bradford City, and in the Scottish Premier League for A ...

and

Scott Booth Scott Booth (born 16 December 1971) is a Scottish football coach and former player, who is the head coach of Lewes in the Women's Championship. A forward by position, he began his playing career at Aberdeen as a teenager, before moving to Ge ...

– and made 181 first team appearances for the ''Dons''; he was part of the squad that came close to winning the League title on the last day of the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

in the 1990–91 season, and achieved further league runners-up finishes in 1992–93 and 1993–94, as well as reaching the 1992 Scottish League Cup Final and

1993 Scottish Cup Final The 1993 Scottish Cup Final was played between Rangers and Aberdeen at Celtic Park on 29 May 1993. Owing to ground reconstruction at Hampden Park, the fixture was played at another stadium for the first time since 1924. Rangers won the match ...

, losing out to Rangers on every occasion. In 1994–95 the club's results were unexpectedly poor and they escaped relegation only via a play-off; these turned out to be Wright's last matches for the club, and the situation also meant his wedding took place in the short time between the regular season and the matches against

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

rather than in a more relaxed atmosphere after its conclusion, as he had planned. In the summer of 1995, he joined his boyhood heroes (and Aberdeen's main rivals) Rangers for £1.5m. Much of his time at Ibrox was spent injured, following a rupture of the

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

in his knee during a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

match against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

in his first season. After just seven league appearances in three years (his spell with the ''Gers'' coincided almost exactly with that of

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is described by the National Football Museum as "widely recognised as the most naturally talente ...

who in contrast played over 100 times), Wright had a loan spell with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

before joining

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

in 1998, where he reunited with former Rangers teammate

Stuart McCall Andrew Stuart Murray McCall (born 10 June 1964) is a professional football coach and former player. He is assistant manager at Sheffield United. McCall played in a total of 763 league games and in 40 full international matches for Scotla ...

and helped the club gain promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in his first season, although he did not make a league appearance in his second. Those two years with the ''Bantams'' preceded another two back in Scotland with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, where he took an interest in the coaching aspect of the game, before he finished his playing career in 2002 with a short spell at

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

International

Wright won two international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

while playing for Aberdeen, in March and May 1993.

Coaching career

Wright joined

as first-team coach in January 2008, moving from a youth coaching role at Rangers. He coached with Fife Elite Football Academy (developing players for the

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

region's four professional clubs:

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...

, Dunfermline Athletic, East Fife and

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

) for nearly a decade before returning to Rangers in May 2017. Wright became the Head of Academy at

Dundee F.C. Dundee Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Dundee, Scotland, founded in 1893. The team are nicknamed "The Dark Blues" or "The Dee". The club plays its home matches at Dens Park. The club was formed after a merg ...

in February 2019.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* *
Profile and stats at ''AFC Heritage Trust''
*
Bradford profile at ''Sporting-Heroes.net''
Dundee United FC Historical Archive profile
-> {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Stephen 1971 births Living people Footballers from Bellshill Aberdeen F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Scotland men's B international footballers Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish men's footballers Scottish Premier League players Scunthorpe United F.C. players English Football League players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football fullbacks Dundee F.C. non-playing staff