When it comes to international football, you could say Haji Wright is out in the cold.
The 25-year-old went to the last World Cup in Qatar with the U.S. men’s team, scored a remarkable goal, and has not received another cap since the team’s round-of-16 defeat by the Netherlands in December 2022.
The Los Angeles-born striker is used to the chilly fringes of the game, though, and his desire to fight back into Gregg Berhalter’s squad is still red hot.
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A peripatetic career has seen him leave Southern California to play in New York City, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Turkey and now England with Championship side Coventry City. It has brought resilience and an attitude to make his mark, whatever the weather.
“Germany was actually the biggest culture shock,” he says, discussing his wandering CV after training at Coventry Sky Blue Lodge training ground. “I didn’t have any of the language and it was hard to communicate at first, but the weather was the biggest eye-opener. Coming from L.A., I’d never owned a proper winter coat before or experienced those temperatures.
“I wasn’t prepared for it. I didn’t realize it even got that cold on the planet.”
It is a credit to Wright’s perseverance that not only did he adapt and score goals (a theme in his career so far), he doubled down on the temperature plunge by later moving to Sonderjyske in the Danish Superliga.
No wonder he is well prepared to grin and bear his international spell on the outside.
“I’m a million percent still hungry to be in that group,” says the striker who scored the fourth in Coventry’s 4-1 FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday evening and went close to adding an assist and another goal to his tally.
“I have a lot to prove and I’m still learning as a player, but I think I have a lot to offer to any team. I would love to be a part of it.
“I’ve spoken to Gregg (Berhalter) a few times since I came to Coventry. He has given me some words of encouragement and he just tells me to keep going. I spoke to him before my injury (an adductor tear in January) and it was a similar thing with him reassuring me they are watching.
“It’s not just all for nothing as some people would say. He was telling me to keep going because with every goal I’m closer to the team.”
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The goals are certainly coming. Tuesday’s header took Wright to nine goals and six assists in all competitions so far this season for a side who are chasing promotion. Despite being inaugural members of the Premier League, the Midlands outfit have been out of the top flight since relegation in 2001 but sit seventh in the table, only a point outside the play-off places.
Wright has just recovered from his adductor (thigh/hip) tear and is back in the team, switching between a wide forward or center forward role according to manager Mark Robins’ game plan.
“Growing up I played both positions and I think I can perform in both,” says Wright. “It just depends on the game. Whatever the coach wants me to do I’ll do my best.
“Different attributes of mine prosper in different roles. I’m quick and strong and then with crossing and being at the back post against a smaller outside back helps me as opposed to being against a 6-foot center back.”
His overall forward play is certainly benefiting from tutoring from former Manchester United and Norwich striker Robins. “He always gives me pointers of what I can do to improve and how I can score more goals,” he says. “He wants to involve me as a player. I’ve seen some of his goals back since I joined and he was pretty good.”
Wright currently has more league goals than other senior contenders for the USMNT striker pool based in Europe. His eight league strikes are double that of Borussia Monchengladbach’s Jordan Pefok and more than Josh Sargent (who has six but has spent months out injured), current regular Folarin Balogun (four for Monaco in France’s Ligue 1) and Malik Tillman (five for PSV Eindhoven).
The goal Wright remains best known for, however, is that flicked attempt in Qatar during the USMNT defeat by Holland 14 months ago. He admits it was not a fully deliberate piece of virtuoso skill, but he was in the right place at the right time. A useful habit.
“When it happened I saw it back a few times,” he smiles. “It was a crazy moment. Crazy how I hit it and how it just flew over everyone. Even in the moment, I remember not realizing how it had happened, I just knew the ball was in the goal then I looked at the scoreboard and saw my name. I was like, ‘OK, I’ll take it!’.
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“I had seen Christian (Pulisic) get the ball and I made my run to the first post and it came a little bit behind me, so I tried to stop and felt a little shove in the back. My first instinct was I’d been fouled but then the ball nicked off my heel and flipped over their goalkeeper.
“The whole World Cup experience was fantastic. Being around the guys and taking it all in.”
Wright hopes his current form will help him repeat his inclusion in the Qatar 2022 squad, described as a surprise in some quarters, for those forthcoming home-soil tournaments in this summer’s Copa America and then 2026’s World Cup.
As an Angeleno who has also played in New York, for the Cosmos in 2015, what does he think about California’s SoFi Stadium (quarter-final) and New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium (final) as venues?
“It’ll be nice at the MetLife,” he says. “It’s a big, famous stadium and it’ll be interesting to see how the atmosphere plays out.
“I’m from close to Santa Monica and Southern California is known for soccer in America, so it will mean good games and a vibrant atmosphere.
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“I know the stadiums will obviously be full and with great atmospheres. The SoFi is a new stadium, a lot of seats. It’ll be good.”
Wright knows the fight for places to be involved in those games is tough, but he is not letting it distract him.
“I can only focus on what I can control and do my best to impress the coach and the staff,” he says.
“Playing for the national team is an honor. To do so in my home country would be wonderful.”
He is certainly no stranger to intense atmospheres, with one World Cup under his belt and an intriguing spell with Antalyaspor in Turkey from 2021 to 2023, which yielded 31 goals in 64 appearances, almost a goal in every other game.
“The season after Denmark, my agent called me up and mentioned a team in Turkey and I thought, ‘Why not?’. A different experience,” he explains. “I knew about the city of Antalya and having been in the Danish cold I wanted to be in the sun, so just thought, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’.
“I guess that attitude has taken me places I never would have gone to before. I’m kind of a laid-back person.
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“They are very passionate people in Turkey and it doesn’t change when it comes to soccer. The stadiums are very loud and it gets you prepared for the harshest of atmospheres. It teaches you how to stay focused and locked in on a game.”
He swapped the Turkish heat to join Coventry in a club record £7.7 million ($9.7M) transfer last August, in what Robins called a “significant transfer” for the club.
Wright, who is slowly getting to grips with the distinctive Coventry accent (“I’m used to it now! At first I couldn’t understand some things”) is dreaming big when it comes to club and country.
“I think 100 percent we could get back to the Premier League one day,” he says. “Everyone around the club believes it and we also believe it won’t take as long as people from the outside may think.
“We’re on the cusp of doing something great. It’s close.”
How close he is to reviving his career in the USMNT remains to be seen, but Wright’s goals continue to state his case.
(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)