Bradley Wright-Phillips’ Has the Perfect Answer to Parental Pressure, and it Involves Pizza

I always thought that being a footballer with legend for a father was the worst kind of blessing/curse combo. The likes of Jordi Cruyff, Darren Ferguson and Paul Dalglish all played professionally, but did so in the long shadow of their biological benefactors.

Bradley Wright-Phillips doesn’t seem too worried about it though. As the son of Arsenal goalscoring legend Ian Wright, the man they call BWP gets asked about the pressure to live up to your parent’s performance level all the time. And he has the perfect answer. In this player profile from KickTV, (with some impressive production values, seems the MLS-YouTube joint venture is splashing some cash) BWP sums up his approach like this:

“If you worked in your dad’s pizza shop, I don’t think you’d be ‘have I made the dough right?’ or ‘Is this pepperoni in the right place?’ You don’t do that. You just go about it, the way you do.”

And the way BWP has been going about it this season is pretty impressive. Playing for New York Red Bull, alongside Thierry Henry, the man who broke Ian Wright’s Arsenal goalscoring record, BWP is leading MLS with 20 goals this season, and in April became the first Englishman to score a hat-trick in MLS.

Watch above to hear BWP’s full take on his famous family (he’s also brother to Shaun Wright-Phillips), why he moved to MLS, and the first time he realized just how famous his dad was.