He’s talented, experienced, plays the critical position they desperately needed to deepen, and he’s got something to prove.
In short, Brian Wright is exactly what Forge FC was looking for.
The 29-year-old striker has moved down the highway after York United didn’t renew his contract and provides the Hammers with the true No. 9 they had lacked most of the year with Terran Campbell and Jordan Hamilton suffering long injury stretches and surprise success Kwasi Poku transferred to a Belgian side in August.
Arguably, despite spreading goals around, the lack of a pure striker finally caught up to Forge in the post-season, where they were edged by Cavalry FC in the playoff championship.
Wright is coming off a 2024 in which–despite debilitating injuries which severely muted his final couple of months—he won the Players’ Player Award, the only CPL individual honour voted upon solely by the league’s athletes. Like Tristan Borges, who was named the 2024 Player of the Year, and with whom he’ll now potentially play a lot of give-and-go, Wright not only scores goals, he sets them up. The past season he scored nine times, fourth in the league and added six assists, tied with Borges for third overall behind co-leaders Themi Antonoglou of Valour and Kyle Bekker, Wright’s new teammate and captain.
The solidly-built Wright (6-feet, 198 pounds), can score in traffic, in the air and from the outside, and will provide some toughness inside the box.
“I had some choices but in the global scope my decision was more that I’m an Ontario guy and it’s not too far from the GTA where my family and friends can still come to games,” Wright says of his decision to sign with Hamilton, rather than elsewhere in the CPL, or even a league in another country.
“And Bobby (Smyrniotis) and Forge have built something there over the years. It’s one of those things that when you’re on the outside and playing against them you’re wondering what it’s like with them, so it’s nice to join the team and see what it’s like on the inside.
“Whether it’s linking up, coming off the line or running in behind, being able to find my runs or finding me in the box—or whatever it is–I’m really happy to be playing with some of the guys who helped build Forge to what it is today.
“It’s a striker’s dream, that’s for sure.”
Not every natural goal scorer can also make a pinpoint pass or even wants to, but Wright, like Borges and Bekker, takes pride in being able to dish the ball off and sees the tactical value in it. That trio has some of the highest individual ‘goal contributions’—goals plus pure assists—seasons in CPL history. Wright reasons that against a striker who is not a reliable passer or can’t quickly locate a teammate for the outlet, the other team “only has to worry about him scoring goals.” But if they have to begin wondering whether he’ll shoot immediately, delay with the ball put someone else on the end of the ball with accuracy, or even get a “hockey assist” (a rebound chance, or the second-last pass before a goal) it creates uncertainty on the defence.
“As I’ve got older I’ve prided myself on adding more to my game to make myself more effective as a striker,” Wright says. “I was pretty happy to finish one behind the lead in assists. Everybody knows what a player like Tristan is capable of, he’s produced every year in this league. A couple of times on the field we’ve joked around—‘Don’t score today!’ and I’d say the same thing —but I was only three off his record (18) for goal contributions that he set that first year so I strongly feel that if I didn’t hurt my ankle this year I could maybe have passed it. But who knows what could happen now? Playing with him, maybe we could both pass that record together.”
Wright feels that without a couple of injuries, he would have had his best pro season since he dominated U.S. college play for the University of Vermont Catamounts, for whom he had 39 goals in 80 career games leading to his first-round selection (20th overall) by New England Revolution in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft. After three seasons with New England—much of which was spent on loan to the USL—and another as a signed USL player in Birmingham he ran out of contract and came north to play for Atlético Ottawa.
He excelled in Ottawa, finishing second on the team in goals his first year as Atleti made the league finals against eventual champion Forge, and scoring 14 goals in 53 games across all competitions. Then he went to York as a free agent for two years, including his standout 2024 season.
He tore his hamstring early in the season, although that kept him out only two games, then during the week after York played Forge to a 0-0 tie at the end of August, he turned his ankle and tore some ligaments. With the team struggling he returned to play too soon, hoping to re-find “the form that was helping me score goals earlier in the season. I tried to have as much impact as possible but wasn’t able to score a goal again for the rest of the season. I had one assist in that time.
“It was about a five-week drought. I’ve had droughts before that were a little longer but that one felt like forever considering how well I’d been doing earlier in the season.”
So he’s anxious to climb back on the horse, and that one will be a thoroughbred. His first action for his new team will be in the Champions Cup, on February 8 against CF Monterrey.
He’s played big games, before big crowds, before but says “playing against a club like Monterrey will be an unbelievable experience. But it’s no one I’m going to shy away from and neither will the club. I’m sure Bobby will have us prepared.
“You never know what can happen in an elimination tournament like this. We’ll have cold and snow in Hamilton then the next week in Mexico it’ll be 25 degrees.”
Born in Toronto, Wright moved with his family to Ajax when he was four and began playing soccer at Ajax FC as a centre midfielder with some dabbling as a striker. He was then moved out to the wing when he was 10 or 11 and didn’t get back to striker until he was a U-16 player. He entered Vermont in 2013 and was America East Conference rookie of the year. While he was there he helped the Catamounts win an opening round in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. He says he learned a great deal about the game from Vermont coaches and last week he was elated when his alma mater won its first-ever national title.
Professional ball took some acclimatization. In the MLS, primary strikers, who generally get paid the most, are often ‘designated’ players from other countries, so he spent the first year just “learning how to be a pro” and then got to play more in Year 2 under coach Brad Friedel the former goalkeeper for Liverpool, Aston Villa, and others who played against current Forge assistant coach David Edgar.
As planned, he spent 2019 on loan to Birmingham Legion of the USL where his coach was one-time Hamilton Steeler Tom Soehn, then when New England didn’t renew his contract for 2020 after a change in coaching, Birmingham signed him outright. But that was the pandemic year, and after scoring two goals in the opening two games, he struggled to score and eventually wasn’t re-signed after the very short season.
He says that his years in the U.S. and the CPL has made him more well-rounded on the pitch but have also made him understand who he is as a player.
“I was always someone who was athletic and fast,” he says. “They say speed kills. But my coaches in college said ‘You won’t always be fast, you’ll slow down a bit; you have to add other elements to your game.’ So in the off-season, I’ve always worked on things, trying to become more of a complete player.
“I’m a runner, and I’m strong. I like to make a lot of runs in behind. That’s usually how I try to crack teams. I’m not much of a dribbler: I’ll dribble here and there but it’s not one of my strong suits. I think you have to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses. I like having speed and making more intelligent runs.”
Wright says that with York heading in another direction, “the ball wasn’t too much in my court because my contract ran out at the end of December, but you understand this is a business and you have to be professional about it.
“It’s somewhat of a rivalry between Forge and York, the 905 Derby, but I imagine that maybe the York fans would not be too pleased with me switching sides.
“I think Forge fans who remember me from playing all these years against them will know I’m a hard-working striker, willing to press, to do the dirty work. I just want to be a player having a positive impact on the team and help build on what Forge has already built. They’ve set the standard in this league.”