Bailey Colin Wright (born 28 July 1992) is an Australian professional

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 ...

who plays for EFL Championship club

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

, on loan from Sunderland, and the Australia national team. Wright has played his entire senior career in England, with Preston North End,

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and Sunderland. He has played 24 times for Australia and was selected for Australia's 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Club career

Wright spent his formative years at

Langwarrin Langwarrin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Langwarrin recorded a population of 23,588 at the . Langwarrin is bounde ...

, before playing a season each with Mornington and

Dandenong Thunder Dandenong Thunder SC is a soccer club from Dandenong, a suburb in the South-East region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They are an Albanian Australian-backed club. Thunder compete in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. In 2012, Dandenon ...

. He was identified as a promising talent, eventually earning selection for the Victorian state team in 2007. He honed his skills further with the

Victorian Institute of Sport The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succe ...

in 2008, returning to Langwarrin in 2009 where he made several senior league appearances, before moving overseas in July 2009, signing a two-year scholarship with Preston North End after a protracted clearance saga.

Preston North End

In his first season with Preston North End, Wright played predominantly as a centre-half for the reserves and under-18 teams, but was eventually called up to the senior squad in April, sitting on the bench for the club's fixture away to

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

. He commenced the 2010–11 season with his debut senior appearance in the first round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, playing the full 90 minutes in the Lilywhites' 5–0 win against

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

. On 13 December 2010, Wright was handed a two-and-a-half-year professional contract. Wright made his league debut for Preston on 5 March 2011 against

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. He scored his first professional goal for Preston on 7 April 2012 against

MK Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. ...

. Wright was voted Young Player of the Year of Preston North End for the 2012–13 season. On 1 May 2013, he was handed a new two-year contract, with the option of staying at Preston North End for another year. Wright won promotion via the play-Offs with Preston in 2015, defeating Swindon Town 4–0 at Wembley on 24 May 2015.

Bristol City

On 6 January 2017, it was announced that Wright joined

for an undisclosed fee, signing a -year contract. On 7 January 2017, he made his debut in the FA Cup third round tie against Fleetwood Town. He scored his first goal for Bristol City in a 1–1 draw with

on 7 March 2017. At the start of the 2017–18 season, Wright was named Bristol City captain. Wright featured as Bristol City reached the semi finals of the 2017–18 EFL Cup with wins over

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 Fo ...

opponents

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, Stoke City,

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

and Manchester United. Wright played as City lost in the semi-final tie against Premier League leaders Manchester City. Wright was released by Bristol City at the end of his contract in July 2020.

Sunderland

Wright signed a six-month loan deal with

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club Sunderland on 21 January 2020. On 2 August 2020, Wright signed for Sunderland on a permanent basis, on a two-year deal. He scored his first goal for Sunderland in a 2–2 draw with

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 27 October 2020. Wright joined fellow Championship club

in a deadline day loan move on 31 January 2023.

International career

Wright was a member of the Australia under-17 squad that reached the quarter-finals of the

AFC U-16 Championship The AFC U-17 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship, is a football competition, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held once every two years for Asian under-17 teams that also serves as a q ...

, narrowly missing a place at the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup when they lost 2–3 against

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

. He was also selected as part of Ange Postecoglou's 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, one of two new inclusions. Wright made his national debut starting in a friendly match against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He scored a header in this debut giving Australia a two-goal lead. He was in the

Australia national football team Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia men' ...

preliminary squad for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia but did not make

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who was recently the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other club ...

's final 23.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 15 November 2017. Australia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Wright goal.''

Honours

Preston North End *

Football League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise ...

: 2015 Sunderland * EFL Trophy:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

EFL League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise t ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Bailey 1992 births Living people Soccer players from Melbourne Australian expatriate soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Australia international soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Preston North End F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players English Football League players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Association football defenders Australian soccer players Victorian Institute of Sport alumni