"Dancing is in my blood — but mainly at family events." Shaun Wright-Phillips said it himself, and honestly, that quote tells you everything about why this casting works. The former Manchester City winger has been confirmed as a contestant on the 24th series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, kicking off this September.
It's a left-field one, but Wright-Phillips has form for surprising people. A slight, quiet winger who became one of the Premier League's most electrifying players in the early 2000s, he earned City's Player of the Year award in 2004 after four consecutive Young Player of the Year wins. That kind of sustained excellence in a side still finding its feet in the top flight doesn't get the credit it deserves.
The career worth remembering before the sequins arrive
His £21 million move to Chelsea in 2005 was a club-record sale for City at the time — a real marker of how far his stock had risen. The return to Manchester in 2008 was theatrical from the off: a brace on his second debut, away at Sunderland. He went on to play his part in the 2011 FA Cup win, City's first major trophy in 35 years, before eventually winding down through QPR and MLS before retiring in 2019.
Since then he's carved out a solid broadcasting career across the BBC, Sky Sports and ITV — which means live television holds no real fear for him. That matters on Strictly, where the pressure of performing in front of millions tends to separate those with a sporting background from those without one fairly quickly. Whether footwork translates across disciplines is another question entirely.
A new-look show for a new-look lineup
Wright-Phillips joins a series that's already in transition. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are out after years at the helm; Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe take over presenting duties from September. The judging panel — Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke — stays put, so the scoring will be as unforgiving as ever.
For City fans, there's a certain charm in watching one of the club's most popular players from that pre-Abu Dhabi era get a fresh moment in the spotlight. Wright-Phillips represents a specific, fondly remembered chapter — graft, pace, and a low centre of gravity that served him well on the wing. Whether it serves him on the dancefloor is the question Strictly is about to spend several weeks answering.
"I'm super excited to get started," he said. The judges might feel differently after week one. That's the fun of it.
