| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Harold Edward Wright[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1909-06-03)3 June 1909[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Tottenham, London, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | April 1994 (aged 84)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | King's Lynn, England[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Goalkeeper | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| Harwich & Parkeston | |||||||||||||||||
| 1932–1935 | Charlton Athletic | 38 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1936–1937 | Aldershot | 28 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Derby County | 25 | (0) | |||||||||||||||
| Chelmsford City | |||||||||||||||||
| 1946–1949 | Colchester United | 50 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 141 | (0) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1935 | England XI | 1 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1959 | Lebanon | ||||||||||||||||
| 1961–1963 | India U19 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1963–1964 | India | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Harold Edward Wright (3 June 1909 – April 1994) was an English professionalfootballer andmanager who played as agoalkeeper inthe Football League forCharlton Athletic,Aldershot, andDerby County. He managed theLebanon national team in 1959 and theIndia national team between 1963 and 1964.
Wright began his playing career withHarwich & Parkeston, but by 1932 he was on the books at Charlton, where he remained for three years. He spent time withAldershot and thenDerby County before the outbreak ofWorld War II. He also appeared forSouthern League sidesChelmsford City andColchester United. He represented anEngland XI once in 1935 against an Anglo-Scot team in a friendly game for theKing George V Jubilee Trust Fund.[2]
Wright took up a coaching role atGuildford City following his retirement in 1949, before holding similar positions atWalsall andLuton Town. He was named as head coach atEverton in 1956, and later coached theIndia youth team between 1961 and 1963 in preparation for the1963 AFC Youth Championship. In 1963, he inheritedSyed Abdul Rahim's India national team, where Wright led the side to the runners-up spot in the1964 Asian Cup, which remains the most notable triumph in professional football for India.[3][4]
Born inTottenham, London, Wright initially played forEssex outfitHarwich & Parkeston, but by 1932 he had joinedFootball League sideCharlton Athletic. Between 1932 and 1935, Wright made 38 league appearances, despite being understudy toSam Bartram as Charlton rose from theThird Division to theFirst Division.
During the1936–37 season, Wright played 28 times forAldershot as they finished bottom of the Football League. However, a fee of £2,500 saw him move toDerby County for the following season, where he played 25 times.
In thewar years, Wright played atLayer Road, the ground of his future clubColchester United alongside his future managerTed Fenton while playing for anEastern Command side.[1] Having also played forSouthern League sideChelmsford City,[5] Wright signed for Essex rivals Colchester United on 11 July 1946. Despite playing 23 times for Colchester, the club initially decided to not retain Wright for the1947–48 season, but a month later, a change of heart saw Wright re-sign. In his second season, he helped Colchester reach the fifth round of theFA Cup, but within weeks of the beginning of the1948–49 season, Wright had suffered an injury that saw him lose his place to Ken Whitehead.[1] His attempted comeback on 23 April 1949 againstMerthyr Tydfil ended early due to injury, meaning Colchester were forced to playforwardVic Keeble in goal. It would be his final appearance for the club.[6] He made 69 appearances for Colchester in all competitions.
Wright made one appearance for anEngland XI side that played an Anglo-Scots team in theKing George V Jubilee Trust Fund friendly held atHighbury on 8 May 1935. A crowd of 8,944 witnessed the 1–0 defeat for the England side, withManchester United'sGeorge Mutch scoring the only goal of the game.[1][2][5]
On leaving Colchester in the summer of 1949, Wright was appointed trainer-coach atGuildford City. After qualifying as anFA coach andphysiotherapist, Wright would hold coaching positions atWalsall andLuton Town before being appointed head coach of First DivisionEverton in September 1956.
In 1959, Wright coached theLebanon national team at thequalifiers for the1960 Summer Olympics.[7][8] Between 1961 and 1963, Wright spent time in India coaching the Indian youth team in preparation for the1963 AFC Youth Championship inMalaya.[1] Wright then inheritedSyed Abdul Rahim's side to become the first foreign coach of theIndia national football team after Rahim died in 1963. Wright was tasked with taking his side to the1964 AFC Asian Cup. They finished as runners-up to hostsIsrael in theround-robin tournament, which to-date remains the best achievement in Indian professional football.[3][9][10]
Wright retired toKing's Lynn inNorfolk, where he died in April 1994.[1]
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