Ben Wright (footballer)

Football player infobox
playername = Ben Wright


fullname = Benjamin Wright
nickname =
height = height|ft=6|in=1
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1980|07|01
cityofbirth = M%C3%BCnster, Germany
countryofbirth =
currentclub = Lincoln City
clubnumber = 15
position = Striker
youthyears =
youthclubs = Deeping Rangers
years = 1998-1999
1998-2001
2000-2001
2001-2002
2003-2007
2006
2007-
clubs = Kettering Town
Bristol City
→ Woking (loan)
Viking
I.K. Start
→Moss FK (loan)
Lincoln City
caps(goals) = 11 (0)
2 (0)
3 (0)
? (?)
68 (28)
? (?)
34 (15)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate = 18:25, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate =

Ben Wright is an English footballer, currently playing for Lincoln City whom he joined in August 2007.

Ben began his career in the youth system at Deeping Rangers and was also part of the Deepings School team which won the Lincolnshire Schools County Cup in 1999. He was soon snapped up by local football conference side Kettering Town and began to attract scouts from the football league, appearing twice for Leeds United in the FA Premier Academy Under-19 League before joining Bristol City for £30,000 in March 1999.

He spent the majority of his time at Bristol City in first the youth team and then the reserves but found first-team opportunities hard to come by, though he did spend a week on trial with Bolton Wanderers and a month on loan with Woking. In April 2001 he linked up with his former manager Benny Lennartsson at Norwegian club Viking.

He spent two seasons with Viking and attracted attention when he scored a 90th minute header against Chelsea in a UEFA Cup First Round, First Leg, match at Stamford Bridge in September 2002. Though Viking lost the game 2-1, it was a vital away goal and put real pressure on the Chelsea team for the away leg which they subsequently lost 4-2. For the 2003 Norwegian season, Ben linked up with I.K. Start and went on to spent five seasons with the club, finishing as the club's leading goalscorer when they won the First Division title and promotion to the Tippeligaen in 2004. In September 2005, he suffered a broken left leg in training, an injury that kept him out of much of the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Recovering fitness, he spent the remainder of the 2006 season on loan to the Norwegian championship side Moss FK.

In the summer of 2007, he elected to return to England and trialled with Barnet. He was spotted by the Lincoln City management and turned down a contract offer from Barnet to join Lincoln at the beginning of August 2007. Wright ended the season as top goal scorer for Lincoln, netting 15 league goals.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/uefa_cup/2269927.stm BBC interview following Chelsea goal, September 2002]
* [http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=830&ArticleID=1575712 Spalding Today Profile, June 2006]
* [http://www.ikstart.no/default.aspx?m=169&amid=71594 IK Start Profile, 2006]
*soccerbase|id=16493|name=Ben Wright
* [http://www.theimp.lincolnfans.co.uk/strike1.shtml Unofficial Ben Wright Profile] at [http://www.theimp.lincolnfans.co.uk The Forgotten Imp]