Ian Wright’s early life is being turned into a film produced by rapper Stormzy’s #Merky film company. The ex-Arsenal and England international, only turned professional in his early 20s, going on to become one of Arsenal’s top scorers.

He has spoken before about his difficult childhood and rejections from multiple clubs as a teenager but says the biopic will be the “first time we’re bringing it all together”.

Stormzy says it was an “honour” for his company #Merky Films to co-produce the film, helping to “bring such an important and powerful story to the screen”.

Wright was born in 1963 in Woolwich, London to Jamaican parents who had arrived in the UK as part of the Windrush generation.

According to the film’s producers, the biopic covers how football became “the young boy’s only escape from his tough home life”.

The former England striker has previously spoken about how his stepfather was abusive to him when he was young.

Sydney Pigden, the schoolteacher Wright has called “the greatest man in the world”, is also set to be a major character in the film.

He helped the future football star to read and write and also encouraged him to “believe in who he could be”.

Wright and Pigden were reunited while the footballer was filming a show, and clips of Wright’s shock during the emotional reunion are still widely shared.

The footballer’s struggles to win a professional contract are also set to form part of the film’s story.

In real life, he had unsuccessful trials for Southend United and Brighton & Hove Albion as a teenager and played for an amateur Sunday league club where he was a top scorer.

According to the film’s announcement, the biopic follows him up to the moment when his “raw talent” finally gets him noticed by a professional football club, and he must decide whether to “take a shot at the big time”.