Big Interview: Kilman looking to get the Max from his talent

Kilman joined Wolves from National League side Maidenhead United in August, 2018 and is now battling for a spot in Nuno Espirito Santo’s Premier League side.

The 22-year-old is yet to make a top flight start but after back-to-back Europa League starts, his star is rising.

And the left-sided centre-half believes his Premier League Two Division Two promotion winning season with the U23 side has helped him adapt from part-time football.

But as he pushes for that first Premier League start at Bournemouth next Saturday, he is keen to keep improving.

He said: “It has been very tough because I have had to adapt.

“There has been a lot of room for improvement.

“It has been a long process but I think I needed quite a while to adapt to training full-time and all of that.

“The length has been quite long but I think it was beneficial for me.

“My aims are just to keep getting better.

“I still think there is a lot of room for improvement with me.

“Just to get better and better everyday.”

But it was not just a shift from part-time to full-time football but a complete life-shift for the London-born defender,

Kilman was studying a business and sports degree at Hertfordshire University when he got the call from Wolves.

His mother Maria had urged him to find some form of insurance just in-case his footballing dream did not pay off.

But now Max, his mum and father Alex are all ecstatic to see that their sacrifices are paying off.

He said: “It was tough (at Maidenhead) because we did not train full-time.

“I did not know where football was going with me.

“I was studying at university at the same time, doing both and just taking it game by game.

“But I was very fortunate.I was just finishing my degree online when I joined Wolves.

“My mum was saying ‘you can’t just rely on football, you need to get a job’.

“I was OK at school so I just decided to go to university.

“It was a no-brainer when I got the interest from Wolves.

“I had to come and see what happens.

“I would always make a sacrifice to miss stuff for football, university, just to try.

“My parents are very happy.

“My dad always believed in me but my mum wanted me to have that insurance.

“But it has paid off, so I’m happy with it.”

Kilman arrived at Molineux as a full England international due to his futsal exploits.

The defender featured for London futsal side Helvécia and Maidenhead in that 17-18 season that caught Wolves’ attention.

And Kilman explained futsal was always an outlet to improve his football game and aid his fitness due to Maidenhead’s part-time status.

He said: “When I was 15 I got invited to a local futsal team.

“I thought it was more like a five-a-side thing. More football.

“But I started playing it, started liking it and it was more intense than football.

“I started to learn more about the game and started to transition and play both at the same time football and futsal.

“Not much so (a decision to choose football over futsal), I always wanted to play football, futsal was something on the side to keep my fitness up, I was not training every day.

“So to do football training three times a week and futsal three times a week.

“It was good, a way of training every day.”

Kilman’s journey to a full-time professional contract started when he six years old.

The defender was born in Kensington and Chelsea and inherited a love of football from his father.

Kilman’s Premier League debut came in Wolves’ 1-0 final day victory over Fulham.

And he revealed his release from Craven Cottage at 15 inspired the fight that would eventually see him make it to professional level.

Despite that early rejection and no joy at current League One side Gillingham he never gave up.

Apt that his Premier League debut would be against Fulham in last term’s final day 1-0 win.

And he stressed his desire just to play football.

He said: “When I was six my dad had introduced me to football.He used to watch it and take me down to the park.From then I just went to the park with a ball and started kicking it around.

“I got to Fulham when I was nine and I got there through until I was 15.

“I did not get offered a contract after that but it was good, it was a good level, I played a lot.

“I really enjoyed it there.

“When it happened (the release), everything went. I’d broken down but I could not imagine doing anything else.

“When I was at school everyone knew that I played football.

“It was tough but I just wanted to go and play football again.

“After I got released I thought I need to keep going.

“Me and my dad kept trying.

“I went to different clubs, went to Gillingham.

“I played there at youth level, again I didn’t get offered a pro deal.

“So I went to Maidenhead, played a couple of games for the U18s, then next season started training with the first team.

“Then I picked it up from there again.

“It turned out OK!”

That pathway to Maidenhead’s first team is the same route he is using at Wolves.

The U23 team train regularly with Nuno’s first team and utilise the same formation as that crop.

Kilman sees playing the same shape of 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 as important to aiding the first team transition.

And Kilman says there is a lot of young talent at Compton Park.

He said: “It is very important for the U23s or the 18s when they come up to train with the first team or when they have played they know the formation and they can adapt straight away in training.

“Some of the players went on-loan.

“I still speak to them, we had a very good season and there is a lot of talent in that group.

“I feel a lot of them deserve to be playing somewhere and doing what they can.”