Originally Posted by
Brin
Loads of gems out there it's just spotting one that's the hard bit. Classic was Ian Wright playing Non leagueSunday Football and another non league Manager saw him and tipped off Palace......the rest is history.
From being a t.eenager, until the age of 21, Wright played for Bermondsey-based amateur Sunday league club Ten-em-Bee (a club his sons Brett and Shaun also later played for). In 1985 Wright was signed by semi-professional Greenwich Borough and got paid £30 a week.
After just six or seven matches, he was spotted by a Crystal Palace scout after a tip-off from Dulwich Hamlet manager Billy Smith and was invited for a trial at Selhurst Park. Having impressed then-manager Steve Coppell, he signed a professional contract for Crystal Palace in August 1985, just three months short of his 22nd birthday, the agreed fee being a set of weightlifting equipment.