Thomas James Wright (born 21 October 1944) is a 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 ...

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 ...

. A one-club man, he played for Everton, with whom he won the Football League and the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, and represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, including at the 1970 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Wright was born in

Norris Green Norris Green is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, in the east of the city. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 17,784, which had fallen to 15,047 at the 2011 Census. History Historically a part of Lancashire, Norris Green's develo ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. He joined Everton as an apprentice, and made his first team debut in 1964. He was part of the winning team in the

1966 FA Cup Final The 1966 FA Cup Final was a football match played on 14 May 1966. It was contested by Everton and Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley. Everton were the first team since Bury in 1903 to reach an FA Cup Final without conceding a goal, while Sheffield ...

, in the unsuccessful team in the

1968 FA Cup Final The 1968 FA Cup Final was the 87th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 18 May 1968 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between West Bromwich Albion and Everton. West Brom won 1–0 after extra time. Jeff Astle scored the winning goal, thus a ...

and played all 42 league games in the 1969–70 season when Everton won the Football League Championship by nine points. He also won the 1970 FA Charity Shield. He made 437 appearances in total and scored four goals. Wright has often been described as the best right-back to play for Everton.

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...

once described Wright as his most difficult opponent.

International career

Wright made twelve appearances for

including the classic match against

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 ...

in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.Official FA statistics
/ref> Wright made his debut for England in the game in which England beat the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in the third place match in the

1968 European Football Championship The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968. It ...

in Italy, the only player to make his England debut in a European Championship finals match.

Retirement

Wright retired in 1974 due to injury. His contributions to Everton were noted in the years following his retirement. He was named as an inaugural member of Gwladys Street's Hall of Fame in 1996, and as an "Everton Giant" in 2016.

References

*''Everton – School of Science'' by James Corbett Pan Books 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Tommy 1944 births Living people People from Norris Green English footballers Footballers from Liverpool Men's association football defenders England men's international footballers England men's under-23 international footballers English Football League players Everton F.C. players UEFA Euro 1968 players 1970 FIFA World Cup players FA Cup final players