Years Team Name Christopher Wreh | Role Footballer 1996–1997 → Guingamp (loan) | |
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Date of birth (1975-05-14) 14 May 1975 (age 40) | ||
Finding Wreh
Christopher Wreh (born 14 May 1975 in Monrovia) is a retired Liberian international footballer who played as a striker. He was a member of the Arsenal side which won the Premier League and FA Cup double during the 1997–98 season.
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At international level, he won 36 caps for Liberia, scoring 11 goals, and was in their squad for the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations.
Career
A cousin of former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah, Wreh first played for Liberian clubs Young Kotoko, La Modelle International and Invincible Eleven, before being snapped up by French side AS Monaco as a youth in 1989. A centre forward, Wreh was mainly on the fringes of the Monaco side, and spent a period on loan at Guingamp, where he played in the 1997 Coupe de France final (which Guingamp lost on penalties). In the meantime, Wreh had made his debut for Liberia in 1995, and would go on to win 36 caps for his country, scoring 11 goals.
Wreh signed for Arsenal in the summer of 1997 for £300,000, linking up with his former boss at Monaco, Arsène Wenger. Although fourth choice behind Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka, Wreh still played an important part in the Gunners' Double-winning season of 1997–98, scoring in vital 1–0 Premier League wins against Wimbledon and Bolton Wanderers, and scoring the only goal of the Gunners' FA Cup semi-final win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wreh went on to start in the 1998 FA Cup Final, and although he did not score, Arsenal beat Newcastle United 2–0.
Despite scoring in the 1998 FA Charity Shield against Manchester United, Wreh could not sustain his previous form and he played fewer and fewer games and that proved to be his final goal for the club; after the arrival of Thierry Henry and Davor Šuker at the club in 1999 he was squeezed out altogether. He had brief loan spells with Birmingham City (where he scored once against Grimsby), AEK Athens and Den Bosch, but none of these were made permanent. He left Arsenal in 2000, having scored 5 times in 46 matches (most of them as substitute).
Wreh's career never reached the same heights as it had at Arsenal, as he became somewhat of a journeyman footballer. He initially signed for Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal, then returned to the UK in 2001 with brief stints at Bournemouth and St Mirren, but fitness problems meant he rarely got a game. After trying his luck at Bishop's Stortford, he played for United Counties League side Buckingham Town.
In 2007, he returned to football, signing for Perseman Manokwari of the Indonesian Football League.