Profiling Mateus Mané with Data: Good 'early' signs from the 18-year-old

Liverpool are among a host of clubs interested in signing the player from the Championship-bound Wolverhampton Wanderers

Written on 17/02/2026

Since making inroads into the Wolverhampton Wanderers team around the festive period, Mateus Mané has been one of the Premier League’s breakout young talents. His performances and ability have caught the eye across the division. Now that Wolves look destined for relegation to the Championship (they are 18 points adrift of safety with 12 games to play), top teams, including Liverpool, are interested in signing the 18-year-old, who holds a dual passport and will count as a home-grown player under squad quota rules (an added bonus).

A bit of background on the player before we look at his numbers in detail to profile him: Mané was born in Portugal before moving to Greater Manchester to join the Rochdale youth academy in 2016 (eight years of age then). He stayed there for eight years before signing for the Wolverhampton Wanderers academy in March 2024, aged 16 at the time.

The now 18-year-old played 17 games for the Wolves Under-18s and 18 games for the Wolves Under-21s before making his first-team debut with a minute-long appearance against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League in May last season. His first appearance this season was a 20-minute stint off the bench away at Chelsea in November. His first start, and his first full 90 minutes, came in a 2–1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield on 27 December.

The England Under-18 international is predominantly a right-footed player who has featured in a plethora of positions across the forward line and in attacking midfield. This season for the Wolves first-team, he has played nine games either as an attacking midfielder in a 3-5-2 system or as a number 10 behind the striker. He has also made the odd appearance as a centre-forward and on the left wing.

via Transfermarkt

Back in September 2025, Mané signed a contract with Wolves until the summer of 2029. So, even though the West Midlands club look certain to be relegated, the interest in the player, his home-grown status, and his talent mean that the likes of Liverpool may have to fork out somewhere in the region of £35–40 million to sign him in the summer window.

Let’s now focus on the player’s numbers for the season, how he has performed in the opportunities he has been given, and what we are seeing in him that is generating excitement.

Mateus Mané: Percentile Numbers (2025/26 Season)

We have the player’s percentile ranks among Premier League attacking midfielders and wingers for the current season across key metrics. Only players with a minimum of 890 minutes are included to ensure a meaningful sample size (Mané’s percentile ranks were calculated against 41 other players keeping the filters in mind).

I did not apply any age filter, yet we can see the 18-year-old being 70+ percentile in shot-ending carries, progressive carries attempted, crosses, non-penalty shots, and non-penalty xG performance. He is above the 60th-percentile for overall carrying numbers, expected assists, and crossing accuracy as well.

To add to the above, he is a high-volume dribbler, with him being 97th percentile for dribbles completed, although only 26th percentile for dribble success rate (just over 30% success rate in raw numbers). He is 80th percentile for touches in the opposition box and 58th percentile for ball recoveries in the final third.

In raw numbers, he is attempting close to three non-penalty shots and has a non-penalty xG performance of 0.08, with a conversion rate of close to 7.5% (35th percentile in the latter).

Of course, we were not expecting a perfect player playing his first proper season in the top-flight, but we can see why clubs are tracking his progress so closely. The raw talent and potential are there for him to become something significant in the next 3–4 years.

Visualising Mané’s Passes, Carries and more

To add another layer to this analysis, I have scraped some of the event data from the games Mané has played for Wolves so far in the Premier League this season and visualised his actions (i.e. passes, carries, dribbles, and overall touches/heatmap) on a football pitch plot.

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