Who is Max Kilman? Does the Ukrainian team need it?

It all happened quite unexpectedly. Wolverhampton England 23-year-old defender Max Kilman recently announced that he is ready to play for the Ukrainian national team. The words of the textured footballer (192 centimeters tall) were immediately replicated on both sides of the English Channel. It got to the point that in the pre-match press conference with Poland, the Ukrainian national team coach Andriy Shevchenko spoke about Kilman’s opportunity to play for our team. Who? Max Kilman, why did you suddenly (or not suddenly) decide to play for our national team and the “blue-yellow” need you?

How did it all begin? Max Kilman has become something of a premiere for the current Premier League season. Discovery rather “despite” than “thank you”, but nevertheless, now is a moment. So, due to injuries to the Lobos ‘left flank defenders, Castro and Marsala, the Wolves’ mentor, Nuno Santo, transferred nominal center-back Saiss to this position and left our hero on the left back.

Kilman is well used to the Wolverhampton line-up: the team played five games with him (three wins, one draw and one loss) and only two goals conceded. After the match with Leeds, Kilman was generally recognized as the best player in the fight – not only did he play reliably on defense, but he also scored an assist against Raúl Jiménez. After that fight, they started talking about Kilman as a rising star of the Premier League. Max became a frequent guest on the “pages” of the media, where he expressed his desire to play for the Ukrainian team.

Is everything simple in this story? No, not everything. Kilman has a British passport: he was born and raised in London, in the Chelsea area. However, it has Ukrainian roots. It turns out that his mother Maria is Ukrainian. “When I was a child, I used to rest in Kiev, where my relatives live on my mother’s side,” Max confided to the British press. And Max’s father, Alex, is Russian. According to the footballer, relatives on the paternal side emigrated to New York a long time ago. As a child, Kilman visited not only his mother’s homeland – Kiev, but also Moscow. According to him, he no longer speaks Russian as well as before, but still considers his knowledge of the language quite bearable. But the question is that in a sound interview with the BBC, Kilman announced his desire to play not only for the Ukrainian national team, but also for Russia. And our violent neighbors to the north are already trying to try on their national sheepskin coat on this guy.

Wolverhampton Twitter. Nuno Santo and Max Kilman

Who is this anyway? Kilman’s childhood was mentioned in passing. More is known about his adolescence. Max’s parents really wanted their son to have a good education. Therefore, the boy had the university in the foreground. And already in the second – football: Max studied at the Fulham academy. He was engaged, in his own words, with diligence and energy, but the “summer residents” did not see his prospects. Max did not give up and chose futsal. And he achieved good results in this field. Although “good” is not the correct word: just great! Kilman became a player for England’s first national team in the sport. Max spent 25 games for the England team (he played for three years, from 2015 to 2018).

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But at the same time he played in “big” football: he defended the colors of Maidenham United, a semi-professional club in England’s fifth league. His game schedule was as follows: three days a week he trained in the hall, perfected his futsal technique and for three days he worked outdoors, learning the basics of great football. And of course, Max did not forget about his university studies.

How did Kilman get to Wolverhampton? Thanks for this futsal. Wolves scout Hobbs attended one of England’s futsal games (against Wales). It was in 2016. That’s where the great story begins. Hobbs noticed a tall, but quite technical Kilman: “he took a pencil,” as they say in these cases. And when Hobbs discovered that Max also combines playing in the hall with playing on the big field, he put Kilman on the list of candidates to watch. The futsal player was then invited to the Wolverhampton youth team on a tour of the Netherlands, where Max proved to be very good. And in August 2018, Max Kilman became a full-blown Wolves player.

“Since I joined Wolverhampton I realized that my time playing futsal has benefited me. It helps me make decisions faster, I do everything more precisely and quickly, ”Kilman said in an interview with The Guardian. Incidentally, at Wolves, Kilman spends a lot of time playing teqball, where his main partner until recently was the Portuguese Diogo Jota, who moved to Anfield Road. Jota is from Porto, where the best futsal player in the world, Ricardinho, comes from and as a child he probably played futsal too.

The road to the Wolves’ first team was short-lived: as early as December 2018, Max was included in the first-team app to play against Fulham. In April of the following year, Kilman will make his Premier League debut with Wolves, and again against his hometown, Fulham. Max became a rotation player on the team last fall: Nunu entrusted him with a place at the base in the Europa League and substitutions in Premier League matches. Kilman also started this season from the “bench”. But the injuries of two defenders, as mentioned above, and the Wolves’ failures at the start of the season – two losses (to ManCity and West Ham) forced the Wolves coach to look for new options to change the game. And so the Kilman variant appeared. And Max made the most of his opportunity.

What are your gaming characteristics at the moment? According to many serious statistical portals, Kilman is now one of the top five footballers in Wolverhampton. The percentage of his tactical and technical actions is quite high (89). Passing accuracy is 91 percent, in his asset 63 percent of individual bouts won. The numbers are really good. In addition, Max possesses a good technique, regarding a player his role. In general, a solid Premier League level player is not the worst team. It is therefore not surprising that Wolverhampton extended its contract with Kilman until the summer of 2025.

Wolverhampton Twitter. Max Kilman vs. Mohammed Salah

Is it worth fighting for? Max Kilman has not played for the junior ranks or for England’s top teams. Therefore, in theory, he has every right to play for the Ukraine national team. Responding to a question about this defender, our head coach Andriy Shevchenko pointed out that one wish is not enough, he must also have a Ukrainian passport in his hands. But Kilman doesn’t have that document. However, as practice shows, getting our passport for the “necessary player” is not a problem. Tested by Marlos and especially by Junior Moraes.

But this is a delicate matter, let’s say. If Kilman was unequivocal in his statement, they say, I want to play for Ukraine, then that zeal could be encouraged. But the British, consciously or unconsciously, expanded the “geography” of his claims, also naming the Russian team. In addition, the positions of the central defender or the left defender in our team are not really problematic, because on the way to the Ukraine first team, the world champions in their twenties.

So either we let Kilman himself establish his position in the national team more clearly, so that we can all see his wish, or let him become a true star of Wolves and the Premier League, so that we can all see that he still this guy is worth fighting for … Anyway, In my opinion, Max should take the first serious step: the ball is now in his half of the field.