January 8, 2025...Forge FC sign 2024 Players' Player of the Year Brian Wright: 'A profile we've been looking for' (from canpl.ca)
Forge FC sign 2024 Players’ Player of the Year Brian Wright: ‘A profile we’ve been looking for’
2025-01-08
by Charlie O’Connor-Clarke, Digital Content Editor (@charliejclarke)
Forge FC announced Wednesday that the club has signed the Canadian Premier League’s reigning Players’ Player of the Year
Brian Wright to a multi-year contract.
The 29-year-old Toronto native spent the last two seasons playing for York United FC, where he made 54 appearances in all
competitions, scoring 11 goals and recording eight assists. In the 2024 campaign, Wright finished fourth in the league in goals
with nine, and third in assists with six, and was voted Players’ Player of the Year by his peers to become the third-ever
recipient of the award.
Wright also spent two years playing for Atlético Ottawa, and has amassed a total of 24 goals and 11 assists in 97 CPL appearances.
Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis explained that acquiring a player of Wright’s profile was a major priority for his side
this winter, after Forge struggled to score in the 2024 playoffs and never quite recovered their bite at the centre-forward
position after the mid-summer departure of Kwasi Poku.
“The number nine position is something that we want to make sure we get right for this season,” Smyrniotis said. “Losing Kwasi,
who we converted into a nine and seeing such a great job he did for us and the dynamic it gave, we wanted a profile that was
going to get in behind defenders, that was going to cause a lot of issues for the opponents. This guy has done that consistently
over his years in the CPL, playing in different ways and different philosophies. I think the way we play, we can magnify what
he’s been doing and give him a good chance to put up better numbers than he has in the past.”
Across Forge’s six-year history, Smyrniotis suggested they’ve never had a player with quite the skillset of Wright,
who is a more traditional striker than many of the club’s previous options. In particular, Wright’s ability to hold the ball
up and outmuscle defenders will be an asset for a Forge squad looking to retool its attack.
“You go back to 2019 and maybe we’ve never had the classic striker,” Smyrniotis said. “Woobens Pacius, he was the one that
I think was best able to stretch and get in behind, really be a guy who gets on the end of things inside the box. It’s always
been a profile we’ve been looking for, and it’s a profile that causes a lot of problems to the opponent, with such different
pieces around a number nine for our club. I think that only makes everyone better on the pitch.”
Prior to his arrival in the CPL in 2021, Wright had spent his entire professional career in the United States,
being selected 20th overall in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft by the New England Revolution. He went on to play 14 games for
the Revs in MLS, also spending time in the USL Championship with Tulsa Roughnecks and Birmingham Legion.
Wright is the first newcomer to Forge’s squad ahead of the 2025 season. The Hammers began training on Saturday, as the club
prepares to take on CF Monterrey in the upcoming Concacaf Champions Cup tie in early February.
Smyrniotis added that the club will have further roster announcements to make in the coming days as they look to compete
on the continental stage and then attempt to defend their CPL regular season title.
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