Wolves once had a youngster tipped to be worth £100m - look where he is now | OneFootball

Zeli Ismail was once tipped to become football's first £100m player while coming through the ranks at Wolves.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have produced their fair share of talented footballers over the years, but there are not many academy prospects who have arrived with the level of hype that surrounded Zeli Ismail.

While fees upwards of £100 million have become the norm in the modern game, the winger was spoken about as someone who could break through what was seen as a ridiculously high ceiling at the time of his emergence.

Ismail was still a teenager at the time and was yet to make his way into the senior Wolves setup, but his performances at youth level had placed him on the radar.

He would eventually make a breakthrough at Molineux, but his career at the Black Country club never quite developed as predicted.

Now 32, Football League World takes a look at the career of the former wonderkid.

Zeli Ismail was once tipped to become football's first £100m player

After being spotted playing Sunday league football in Wolverhampton, Ismail joined Wolves' academy at the age of nine, and it did not take long for him to attract attention.

The Albania-born winger represented England at both under-16 and under-17 levels, and was named player of the tournament as Wolves finished second at the then-prestigious Milk Cup.

He continued to star in an older age group as Wolves won the Gothia Cup.

The club themselves have since recalled how he was "touted as the first £100 million player", with a 2011 Guardian preview hailing him as potentially Britain's first £100m footballer - linking the youngster with Chelsea and Manchester City.

Unfortunately, regular first-team minutes at Molineux proved hard to come by, with Ismail making just 12 senior appearances for Wolves before his time at the club came to an official end in 2016.

Zeli Ismail has followed an unusual path

Before leaving Wolves, Ismail would spend time out on loan at MK Dons, Burton Albion, Notts County, Oxford United and Cambridge United, before he was finally able to find a permanent club.

He would join Bury in 2016 before later spending time with Walsall, initially on loan, then permanently, and then went on to sign for Bradford City in 2019.

The Bantams had beaten competition from elsewhere to bring him to Valley Parade, with boss Gary Bowyer piling on the praise, saying: "In Zeli, we have beaten off competition from other clubs to sign a very good, technical player.

"He can go past people and is at a good age with plenty of experience."

However, he left Bradford after just 21 appearances in two years, dropping into non-league football with Hereford before moving across the border to Wales.

Ismail signed for Newtown in January 2022 and scored 10 in 60 league appearances, before another move within the Welsh top flight saw him end up at Connah's Quay Nomads in the summer of 2025.

After registering six goal contributions, he left the club earlier this year, moving back to England to join Shifnal Town, who compete in the Northern Premier League Division One West.

Starting the season well, he opened the scoring against fellow Midlanders Stafford Rangers before starting the 2-1 defeat to Clitheroe.

At 32, Ismail is playing non-league football, not too far away from where it all started at Wolves, but fans in the Black Country will always remember those original shouts while he was a youngster, with the Old Gold once tipped to have the first £100m footballer within their ranks.