Five years after signing, Fabio Silva finally left Wolves in the summer 2025 window.
The Portuguese striker departed Molineux having failed to live up to expectation, and joined German giants Borussia Dortmund.
Fabio Silva joined Wolves as an 18-year-old, and was under immediate pressure due to the club paying FC Porto £35.6 million.
The head injury to Raul Jimenez meant he had to play more minutes than intended, and it was clear that Silva was simply too raw.
Several loan spells followed over the next few years, some more successful than others.
His latest to Las Palmas was actually very productive, with Silva scoring 10 goals for the Spanish outfit – although his efforts couldn’t quite save the club from relegation.
That spell led to interest from many clubs, and it was Dortmund who eventually won the race for Silva – and now, Liam Keen has shared if Wolves managed to agree a sell-on clause.
Whether Wolves have a sell-on clause on Fabio Silva
Silva will now play in the Bundesliga, and also get to feature on the Champions League stage.
He’ll have high hopes of finally making a real name for himself after his struggles at Molineux.
There’s a chance he could be a real success. There have been glimpses with him, but now he’s older and more experienced, and this new chapter could be a good one.
Silva simply made his move to Wolves way too early. He is not a bad player, and seemingly the club did want to do something to capitalise on any future explosion from Silva.
Liam Keen has revealed that the club did indeed manage to secure a sell-on clause for his transfer to Dortmund.
He said on the latest E&S podcast: “The answer is yes. I don’t have the number (laughs). A slightly awkward answer. We’re led to believe it’s similar to sort of standard deals, you can guess the sort of figures we’re looking at.
“But I’m told there is one. I think it’s a kind of complex deal as well, which is why we haven’t been able to get a hold of the number.
“The sell-on will be on top of the profits that Dortmund make on him, if they were to sell him. It’s not just based on the whole deal. Let’s say they pay the full £23 million plus add-ons for him and then they sell him for £30 million it would be the percentage of that £7 million profit, rather than the whole thing, just to make that clear.”
Wolves did well with Silva sale
Silva will go down as one of the worst Fosun signings, but the club at least did a decent job regarding his sale.
£23 million plus add-ons is great business considering how long he struggled at the club and how little impact he made.
The exact sell-on clause figure is not currently clear, but the fact there is one shows Wolves are trying to benefit from any future sale of Silva.
Silva sent a very mature parting message to Wolves fans after leaving the club, and hopefully he can become a success in Germany.
Everyone knows it didn’t work out for him at Wolves. But there’s something there with him and he works hard so hopefully he’ll now start to thrive – and potentially make Wolves a bit more cash later down the line.