Rory Wilson’s fledgling career can be characterised as two chapters.The first is goals. Wilson scored 49 of them at youth level the season before he moved from Rangers to Aston Villa as a 16-year-old in 2022, in a deal which was worth an initial £350,000 with add-ons potentially increasing to £1million.In the intervening period across Villa’s under-18s and under-21s, Wilson scored 36 times in 53 appearances. At scholarship level especially, his record was exceptional — in the 2023-24 campaign, Wilson averaged a goal every 64 minutes, netting 16 in 13 games.The second chapter intertwines misfortune and impasses. Yet to make a senior Villa appearance, despite the promise and noise, the 20-year-old has played just over 1200 minutes across two seasons and only 23 minutes of first-team football.The last six months have been a continuation of that theme. He joined five-time Austrian champions, Sturm Graz, in February. For a player sporadically training under Unai Emery, it was an eye-catching loan. They had competed in the Champions League a season earlier.
Welcome to Graz, Rory #Wilson! 📝 #sturmgraz #inundaut pic.twitter.com/zoWrHUBmog
— SK Sturm Graz (@SKSturm) February 6, 2026Playing time proved scant, however. From his loan club’s viewpoint, they admired Wilson’s efforts in their push for a sixth league title, ultimately falling two points short to LASK, who have another Villa loanee in Modou Keba Cisse starring in their backline. “We followed Rory for a long time as we were in touch for the first time in the winter of 2025,” Sturm’s sporting director, Michael Parensen, tells The Athletic. “We followed his performances and always had an eye on his abilities, like scoring goals and being good in the box. We wanted to add extra quality into the team this winter because we had problems scoring goals and we didn’t have presence in the opponent’s box.“We wanted to give the coach another opportunity when it came to playing style. That was why we picked Rory. We have a lot of powerful sprinter striker-type profiles, so we wanted to add other qualities.”Heading into the winter window, the Scotland youth international had several clubs abroad interested. Bundesliga outfit Hoffenheim made an approach, offering a six-month loan with a €7m buy option. While Villa pushed for Wilson to accept, he could not agree terms, owing to concerns about first-team exposure.A loan to Sturm was finalised, whereby they would cover a large percentage of Wilson’s salary on top of the £150,000 loan fee.
