ASTON Villa new boy Rory Wilson has been branded “one of the best strikers at his age in Europe” after completing a £350,000 transfer from Rangers.
Wilson moved from Ibrox to Villa Park last week after the Birmingham and Glasgow clubs decided on a fee to avoid going to a FIFA tribunal.
Villa were confident they were only due cross-border compensation for the 16-year-old, who was on amateur forms and was signing his first professional contract, but agreed to pay £350,000 plus add-ons.
The 6ft tall youngster is the first Rangers player who former manager Steven Gerrard has moved for since departing Scotland for the Midlands back in November.
The Scot, who had also attracted interest from Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Spurs, was promoted to the Ibrox B squad at 15 and featured in the UEFA Youth League.
Brian Mclaughlin, the SFA Performance School manager and Scotland Under-17 coach, believes Wilson has vast potential after being impressed by his progress this term.
The Girvan-born player scored 49 goals at all levels in the 2021/22 season and netted seven times in as many matches for the under-17 team in games against Northern Ireland, Albania, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Denmark.
Scotland have a dearth of prolific goalscorers at the moment – but former Celtic striker McLaughlin thinks there is nobody in Wilson’s age-group in the continent as good as him just now.
“Rory came in aged 12,” he said. “You could see the signs and he took things in working alongside James Grady (Scotland Under-16 coach).
“First year he was a very slow burner, second year a little bit better, third year he started doing his habits. I think he is potentially one of the best strikers at his age in Europe.
“I took him on the 17s campaign there, but he can go again next year. I don’t think anyone realised how young that team was.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel