Mark Bright
Mark Abraham Brightis an English sports correspondent and former footballer.
Born to a Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early age. He played non-league football for local side Leek Town, before joining nearby Football League side Port Vale in 1981. He turned professional at the club the following year, though would only enjoy an extended run in the first-team during the 1983–84 season. He signed with First Division club Leicester City in June 1984.
He failed to find success with Leicester however and was sold on to Crystal Palace in November 1986. He helped Palace to win promotion out of the Second Division via the play-offs in 1989 and went on to play on the losing side of the 1990 FA Cup final, before winning the Full Members' Cup in 1991. Building an effective strike partnership with Ian Wright, he scored 114 goals in 286 league and cup games for Crystal Palace and was also named on the PFA Second Division Team of the Year in 1987–88 and as the club's Player of The Year in 1990.
He was sold to Premier League rivals Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £1,375,000 in September 1992, where he would stay for the next five years, scoring a further 70 goals in 170 games in all competitions. He featured in the 1993 League Cup final and 1993 FA Cup final, which ended in defeat to Arsenal both times. He lost his first-team place in the 1996–97 season and was loaned out to Millwall, also spending time at Swiss club Sion, who were unable to play him in competitive fixtures after failing to come to an agreement with Sheffield Wednesday.
He eventually signed with Charlton Athletic in March 1997 and helped the club to win promotion to the Premier League with victory in the 1998 First Division play-off final, before announcing his retirement the following year shortly before his 38th-birthday. After retiring as a player he worked as a pundit on various television and radio programmes. He married singer Michelle Gayle in 1996 and divorced in 2007; they have one son.
