Matt Hobbs unveils the bizarre story behind £40m Wolves transfer miracle

Wolverhampton Wanderers made a stunning profit of nearly £40 million when they sold central defender Maximilian Kilman to West Ham United in the summer.

Most already know that the Old Gold paid merely £40,000 to secure Kilman’s services from Maidenhead United in 2018, though the extended backstory isn’t quite as public.

Matt Hobbs, Wolves’ current sporting director, has revealed the club’s original scouting of Kilman dates back to way before the defender’s time at Maidenhead. In fact, Hobbs himself played a key role as Wolves watched Kilman taking part in a different sport entirely.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live last week, Hobbs raised a few eyebrows as he revealed: “We saw Kilman playing futsal for England in Cardiff. A player of his size, able to use the ball like he did, was rare.

“I was a scout then. As a scout you remember a name, then I saw he went into non-league. There was then a charity six-a-side tournament - and Max might have even had a couple of beers, I’m not sure - but the next thing you know he came on trial.

“Rob Edwards was our under-23s head coach and Rob loved him from the start. Rob was massive for Max because of the amount of work he put into him. The rest is then history, he came in for 40 grand from Maidenhead and made his big move this summer.”

Had Hobbs not seen Kilman playing futsal, the defender may have never been on Wolves’ radar before it was too late. The extra groundwork at a charity event sealed Kilman as a target in Hobbs’ mind, too, as he went on to watch the centre-back regularly before Wanderers eventually signed him.

Recognising how strange his original find was, Hobbs joked: “I should clarify, I don’t often scout at six-a-side matches when players are drinking! But we do spend a lot of time keeping an eye on non-league. We then give them the time to break through.”

Kilman went on to make 151 senior appearances for Wolves before making his big-money switch to West Ham in July.