Friday, March 29, 2024

Coming to America: The Wright-Phillips Brothers’ Story

*Being the adopted sons of Arsenal legend Ian Wright, Shaun Wright-Phillips and young brother Bradley Wright-Phillips were always destined to make their mark in the world of soccer.

One found significant success in their home country, England, while the other made his way across the Atlantic to achieve the American Dream. Now, both of the Wright-Phillips play in America, with each reaching very different levels of stardom in the United States.

wright-phillips1

‘Wright-Phillips with Thierry Henry and Peguy Luyindula’ – Elomen76 via Wikipedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The New York Red Bulls signed Bradley Wright-Phillips in the summer of 2013, with the team excited about adding his pace and technical ability. His transfer came following a long season in which he played in the Championship and helped Brentford make it to the League One playoffs final.

With nine games, two goals, and one assist across the remainder of the regular season and playoffs, Wright-Phillips didn’t exactly explode onto the MLS scene, but that was all to change from the next campaign.

In 2014, the London-born center forward scored 27 regular season goals en route to becoming the league’s top scorer. In 2016, he repeated the same feat, scoring 24 goals in 34 games.

His impact on the New York Red Bulls has been huge, with him leading the team in goal scoring for the last three seasons – which included him topping the legendary Thierry Henry by 21 goals in 2014 – and he once again leads the team this season.

While the New York Red Bulls are yet to make it to the playoff finals while Bradley Wright-Phillips has been a part of the team, they have successfully made it to the postseason in each of the last four years, making it to the semi-finals twice.

wright-phillips2‘Abu Diaby & Shaun Wright-Phillips’ – Ronnie Macdonald via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Shaun Wright-Phillips was, for much of his career in England, a star player. His career kicked off in a big way when was signed by Chelsea, who currently lead the football odds at 1/250 to win the Premier League, as a part of their big-money spending spree, with the London club paying £21 million to acquire his services.

However, since coming to the MLS in 2015, Shaun Wright-Phillips hasn’t found much joy. While he has been getting more playing time than he was in his final season in England – with QPR – he only has one goal and two assists from 21 total games over three years.

The speedy winger initially came to his brother’s club, the New York Red Bulls, to start his MLS career, but found first team opportunities to be few and far between. Shaun Wright-Phillips has begun this year on the Phoenix Rising roster, playing as a first team regular in the United Soccer League.

The Wright-Phillips brothers moving to America has seen the two effectively flip their former roles. Before their transfers, Shaun was considered to be the better player, having a much higher level of club affiliation and spending the majority of his career in the Premier League.

Bradley, on the other hand, spent much of his career in the second and third tier of English football. However, the younger brother is now one of the stars of the MLS, consistently performing as a top scorer in the top flight of North American soccer, while his brother plays in the second tier.

 

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING