Out of Play
Ian Wright fumes as his footie memorabilia flogged off in the US after ex-wife failed to pay storage fees
FOOTY legend Ian Wright hit out after learning that a lock-up full of his playing memorabilia was being sold off by a mystery US buyer for £7million.
Trophies, signed photos and shirts belonging to the ex-England ace, 54, were snapped up at auction after his first wife Deborah failed to keep up payments on a storage unit in Orlando, Florida.
Around 500 of Wrighty’s mementos – including 35 trophies and awards – are now up for sale on a website for the multi-million pound sum, after being bought by an anonymous American seller.
The former Arsenal striker was alerted by The Sun to the online sale – which even includes a signed ‘185’ shirt given to the prolific marksman after he became the club’s record scorer.
He said: “It’s a sad situation when you have been trying for so long to get your memorabilia back and then find out it’s turned up in a lock-up in America which has now been repossessed.
“It’s just really sad that it has come to this.”
Deborah – wed to Wright from 1993 until they divorced in 2004 – is thought to have rented the lock-up in Orlando after their split.
It’s unclear whose care it fell into later and what happened to payments but it ended up with a Storage Hunters-style auction of the contents after payments were missed or went astray.
A fan bought the memorabilia at auction, then flogged it on US classified ads website Craigslist to a mystery second buyer.
The American – who wants to remain anonymous – has now put the items up for sale on a website called ‘County-Cards.com’.
He told The Sun: “I searched all of America looking for soccer jerseys to buy and I came across the picture of the framed ‘Thank You 185 jersey’ which caught my eye.
“The guy who was selling it said he bought storage units for a living and one of the recent auctions he went to they were auctioning off Ian Wright’s ex-wife’s unit.
“She apparently had four storage units. He ended up buying two of her units and inside one there was all of this memorabilia.”
The collection has 35 of Wright’s trophies, including Goal of the Month, an Adidas Golden Boot, an FA Premier League Hall of Fame Trophy and Premier League Player of the Month awards.
Also featured are his National Football Museum ‘Hall of Fame’ trophy and an award for his work with Kick It Out campaign.
It also includes the signed ‘185’ shirt and a statue of a cannon from Arsenal’s directors – when became the Gunners’ all-time top scorer in 1997.
There are a total of six soccer shirts – including an England jersey belonging to his son, footy star Shaun Wright-Phillips – 14 signed footballs and a rugby top belonging to his son Stacey.
The haul even features the famous red ‘This Is Your Life’ book – presented to the goal-scoring hero by TV presenter Michael Aspel during the program of the same name.
He burst into tears when Aspel surprised him with the tribute book on the show in 1999 – with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger watching in the audience.
Deborah revealed that her lock-up had been sold last summer without her knowledge after she was late on a payment.
She added: “The company who had my stuff sold my lock-ups without telling me.
“There were four lock-ups worth of stuff. We moved to Orlando, me and my daughter, and they were full of all my stuff.
“They were repossessed but what normally would happen is they tell me before they go to sell the lock-ups because it was quite expensive for me.
“I was late on the payment.
“In the lock-ups were all Ian’s medals all our stuff we had collected over the years. There was my whole life of ten to 15 years. We were very unlucky.
“It was a goldmine in there.”
Stranger items up for sale include a framed picture of Wright and basketball star Dennis Rodman, along with a telegram addressed to him by Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman.
They are being sold for an asking price of £7million – although the buyer stressed that “price is negotiable”.
On his website, the seller says: “Ian Wright was one of the greatest football players to throw on an Arsenal kit.
“He was the clubs all-time leading goalscorer and was consistently scoring 20+ goals a season in his time with the gunners.
“You will not find memorabilia like this anywhere else unless you would like to shell out even more than the price listed.”
Wright was married Deborah, a friend he had known since childhood, in 1993 and the couple had a son, Stacey, and a daughter, Bobbi, before divorcing in 2004.
He married Nancy Hallam in 2011 and they went on to have two daughters, Lola and Roxanne.