Ian Wright stated that he has been able to overcome his deprived childhood, wrongdoing of abusive-step father, and also a spell in prison, in order to take up football as a profession. In a candid interview, he has paid tribute to the people who have helped him beat the demons inside him and achieve his dream.

The pundit from the Match of the Day said that he knows a lot of people who take him to be a happy-go-lucky guy. He stated that people see the hat and the golden tooth and feel that he might be a joke. However, he reveals that he has worked really hard to achieve the smile. He goes on to enumerate that for a larger portion of his life he had been angry. His father is known to have absconded and left Nesta, his mother to take care of the family. They lived in a one bedroom house in South London’s Brockley. According to him, the house wasn’t a good place for him. This might have been the reason that he stayed outside kicking on the tennis ball against a brick wall for several hours.

Wright was bullied by his step-brother. However, it is the cruelty of the stepfather which hurt him the most. His stepfather used to smoke weed, gamble, come home late, and was a womanizer. He had been rough with his mother and his kids. Moreover, he didn’t like Wright in particular.

There were only a handful of things that he and his brother looked forward to as the Match of the Day and his stepfather used to take that away from him simply because he could. He would make them face the wall the whole time the match was on. And the cruelest thing was that they were still able to hear everything. This was awful and he used to cry himself to sleep.