Things didn’t work out for Haji Wright at FC Schalke 04. But the striker is now enjoying success in England.

Haji Wright is now 27 years old. So it’s understandable that it might seem like an eternity to Schalke fans that the American left the club in 2019 at the tender age of 21.

The 6-foot-4 center forward now plays for Coventry City in England’s second division—and with great success. Last season, Coventry narrowly missed promotion to the Premier League. Now things are looking much better.

The club leads the table with 58 points, ahead of FC Middlesbrough, which is tied on points. The top two spots qualify for direct promotion to the Premier League. Hull City, in third place, has 54 points.

And Wright is also finding his form again after an outstanding start to the season, scoring eight goals in his first nine league games. After a calf injury in November 2025, he fought his way back and scored his ninth and tenth league goals in January. Statistics that the U.S. national team player was denied during his time with Schalke’s first team.

Wright failed to establish himself at Schalke

Wright was once a great prospect for the future at FC Schalke 04. But things didn’t turn out as brilliantly as expected. With 14 goals in 22 matches, he helped Schalke’s reserve team secure promotion to the Oberliga in the 2018–19 season, but the former U.S. youth international waited in vain for his breakthrough with the first team. He made just seven appearances and scored only once in the Bundesliga.

A brief odyssey followed: Wright was temporarily loaned to SV Sandhausen, then moved permanently to VVV-Venlo, and later to Sönderjyske in Denmark. From there, he was eventually loaned to Antalya. There, he immediately made an impact, scoring 15 goals and providing two assists in his first season. Wright needed 35 games to achieve this.

Antalyaspor thus exercised the purchase option for Wright and paid 1.88 million euros. Wright continued to deliver in his second season in Turkey, scoring 16 goals and providing three assists in 29 games.

In the summer of 2023, he then moved to English second-division side Coventry City for around nine million euros, where he has once again proven his knack for scoring goals.

And that is also reflected in his market value. In the summer of 2019, Wright was 21 years old and playing for the Royal Blues’ reserve team. His market value at the time, according to “transfermarkt.de”: 500,000 euros. Now, about six and a half years later, Wright has increased his market value twenty-fourfold. The website currently lists him at twelve million euros. Wright’s contract runs until June 30, 2027.