Ian Wright reveals he’s become mates with Arsenal fan Idris Elba
I used to bunk into football matches at Millwall Football Club when I was 12. We didn’t have any money so the dockers would sneak us in.
People talk about Millwall fans and the vitriolic abuse they were shouting at black players, but they’d say stuff to players with big ears, big heads or skinny players.
The fact is, they slaughtered everyone. And those were the same dockers who would make sure you were safe when the crowds were swaying on the terraces. They’d hold your legs so you didn’t fall.
My life-changing moment was when my boss persuaded me to have a trial for Crystal Palace FC. I was 22 and working in Tunnel Refineries in Greenwich. I’d had a trial three years before, played really well, but they didn’t take me on. I didn’t want the rejection any more. I bumped into my foreman one day and he asked me what was happening with Crystal Palace. I told him I wasn’t bothering. My partner at the time was having another baby so I couldn’t afford to leave my job. But my boss said he’d keep it open for me. A week later, I had the trial and Crystal Palace took me on. It changed my life.
The most famous person in my mobile phone is probably David Beckham or Idris Elba. Everybody loves Idris! He’s an Arsenal fan so that’s how we know each other. We text every now and then, but I don’t do it too often because I don’t want to be the pesky friend who won’t leave him alone!
It’s one of the saddest things to know your kid is getting picked on at school. My two youngest, Lola and Roxanne, have just joined a new school, so have been a bit on the outside. Roxanne [five] has got short curly hair so the kids said she looked like a boy. She came home and wanted her ears pierced so they could see she was a girl. I’m an ambassador for Cartoon Network’s anti-bullying campaign and think as a parent you have to go into your kids’ world and give them avenues where they can talk to somebody with confidence.
My family would say my most annoying habit is laziness. It will take me three or four days to change a light bulb, it will just be sitting on the side, waiting. I find it really hard to get motivated to do stuff around the house. And I’m really untidy.
I’m addicted to homemade Victoria sponge. Whenever I go to the country, I love those little farm shops with the nice eggs and the homemade Victoria sponge, so I’ve started baking my own. On a Friday I always bake with the girls. It’s a learning curve, but I really enjoy it. I don’t want to go on Bake Off, though – my lopsided sponges wouldn’t be impressive.
I can’t remember having a free Saturday since I started playing football in 1985. But if I did have a weekend off, we’d go on a bike ride in London’s Hyde Park with the girls, and my missus Nancy is into exhibitions so we’d do something like that afterwards. I’m not cultured but Nancy is – I get dragged along! There would have been a time when I’d have let her do that and I’d stay at home and watch the telly, golf or something, but now I like to do that too. We go to the theatre a lot.
Our house is like Raiders Of The Lost Ark after the armed robbery in 2014. I was in Rio covering the World Cup and was just about to go on air when my wife phoned me as the thieves [who held her at knifepoint] were leaving. The 11-hour plane journey home to London was the most I’ve ever cried in my life. My heart was broken because I was so far away, it was like a physical ache. Now, whatever I’m doing, I make sure I get home, whatever time of night.
Stepping into the Wembley changing room and seeing my football boots under the England number nine shirt for the first time was the greatest day of my life. We were playing against Cameroon on a freezing cold night and my shirt was next to Paul Gascoigne’s and Gary Lineker’s. I had to leave the room because I was so emotional and I didn’t want the guys to see me burst into tears.
Match Of The Day, Saturday, 10.20pm, BBC One
Ian Wright is the ambassador for Cartoon Network's anti-bullying campaign