Academy director Jon Hunter-Barrett believes Mateus Mane’s “internal drive” is what makes him such a special talent.
The 18-year-old has taken to first-team football seamlessly in recent weeks, first catching the eye off the bench under Rob Edwards, and in the past four Premier League games making an impact from the start, leading to first senior goals against West Ham United and Everton.
A first Molineux goal and crucial equaliser on Merseyside provided the latest milestone for the ambitious attacker, who grew up in Portugal, before moving to Manchester in 2016. He then spent one year in Rochdale’s system, playing at under-15 level, and joined Wolves Academy in February 2024.
During his first 18 months at the club Mane’s featured for the under-16s and, most regularly, Richard Walker’s under-18s. Having played in the PL2 play-offs in April under James Collins, Mane was handed his senior debut the following month, capping an impressive rise.
Fast forward nine months and Mane is starting for the first team and Hunter-Barrett, who began his new role prior to Christmas, is backing the youngster to kick on from here, and is proud of the academy’s academy to date.
“It’s so exciting because Mateus has an internal drive that enables and empowers all the staff around him to get the best out of him, because he wants to get the best out of himself,” Hunter-Barrett said. “For us, looking at his journey, it's about making sure he gets the right opportunities to show everybody what he's capable of definitely achieving.
“Obviously, a lot of the focus when it comes to the academy is players getting into the first team. Over the years, we’ve had some great examples like Morgan Gibbs-White and Max Kilman, and more recently Hugo Bueno and Mateus. The hardest bit is actually getting someone into the first team, especially when the team's competing in the Premier League, so we are judging ourselves on other things too.
“Ultimately, it’s about developing players who can play for Wolves. Some will move on at different points in their journey and some will be sold, but our ambition is always to produce the next one. That means planning closely with our recruitment team and our coaches, understanding who we have in the system, who may be a priority for the first team, and how we work together in sync. Mateus is the latest example of that process working well.”
First U18s goal 🆚 First senior goal
— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) January 6, 2026
Mateus Mane 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WdskphOhUd
In recent years Hunter-Barrett has worked as academy manager - football, overseeing all football aspects of the club’s category one academy. Now, as academy director, attention turns to a fresh training facility and the new EPPP audit but also ensuring the growth and development of the academy.
“The academy is a completely different world because there's so many things now that we have to think about and offer. We've done a lot of work across the academy over the last three years in terms of profiling players who actually come in.
“We've worked on our programme to get more consistency, with our education offer, our pastoral support, our psychological and wellbeing programme. The pipeline of players now in the system get the correct opportunities at the right time.”
Hunter-Barrett’s Wolves journey began in May 2011 as an academy coach and scout, identifying local talents, while the role of foundation phase lead coach saw him turn to the development of the younger academy players, and in 2017 he began leading on all academy coaching.
In total, Hunter-Barrett has held eight different roles at Wolves, and as academy director he’ll now also take up operational responsibilities, as well as academic and player care duties. Many of the responsibilities are familiar to him already, however.
“It feels like a natural transition for me to take a full oversight of the academy. Matt Jackson knows every nuance of the academy, so really understands the dynamics, so to be working closely with him is massive, and equally with Rob Edwards, looking at his journey as a coach in our academy to now. It feels like a special opportunity for the academy.
“Sometimes having a personal plan is important. With me, it's doing things in the right way, treating people how I would want to be treated. The academy environment over my time has changed, so it’s about having a plan, taking opportunities, being good with people, and if you want to learn and develop, then Wolves is the place to be.”
