Rory Wilson (born 5 January 2006) is a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. Wilson has featured for Villa's U18 and U21 sides since joining the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

club from the Rangers Academy in the summer of 2022.

Club career

Early life and Rangers

Born in

Girvan Girvan (, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, and north of St ...

, Wilson joined the academy of Scottish side

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

at the age of eight. He progressed well through the academy, scoring 49 goals in the 2021–22 season and being called up to the 'B' team at the age of fifteen. He made one substitute appearance for the B team in the 2021–22 season, in a 2–0

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...

loss to

East Stirlingshire East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins can b ...

Aston Villa

In June 2022, it was reported that English side

were interested in signing Wilson. As he was contracted to Rangers until December 2022, the Ibrox club demanded a fee for the transfer. However, Aston Villa claimed that, as Wilson had not signed a professional deal with Rangers, and was only contracted on amateur terms, he was free to sign with them for a low training compensation fee. Wilson had signed an amateur contract with Rangers in December 2019; a rolling, three-year deal that would have fallen under the jurisdiction of the

Scottish FA The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to s ...

had he decided to move to a fellow Scottish club. However, as a move to Aston Villa was classified as an international transfer, international governing body

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

's rules supersede those of national football associations. As the two clubs valuations for Wilson differed, the transfer fee would have been decided by FIFA. After negotiations between the two clubs resumed, a reported deal worth a minimum of £350,000 was agreed, and Wilson joined Aston Villa in July 2022. On 6 January 2023, Wilson's 17th birthday, he signed his first professional contract with Aston Villa. After joining Villa, Wilson's goal scoring form continued. For the Villa Academy, Wilson netted hat-tricks against Liverpool and Brentford in the U17 Premier League Cup and FA Youth Cup respectively. On 7 April 2025, Wilson signed a contract extension with Aston Villa.

International career

Wilson has represented Scotland at youth international level. In September 2022, Wilson stated he was "shocked" after being called up to the Scotland under-21 side. Wilson debuted against Wales for the Under-17 side in 2021 and has since represented Scotland Under-17's in numerous friendly matches, European Championship qualifiers and European Championship finals matches. He has scored more goals than has made appearances for the Under-17s and has since made 2 appearances for the Under-21's.

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

Honours

Aston Villa U21s *

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a regional Association football, football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest County Football Association, count ...

: 2023-24

References

External links

Under-17 profile
at the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

Under-21 profile
at the

Profile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Rory 2006 births Living people People from Girvan Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Lowland Football League players Rangers F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Footballers from South Ayrshire 21st-century Scottish sportsmen