Malcolm Elias is the Head of Talent ID and Recruitment at Fulham Academy

Fulham Academy

The Fulham Academy, headed by Huw Jennings, runs along the lines of many of the English football academies as deemed appropriate by the national governing body, the FA. Players dealt with by the academy can be aged as young as nine years old...

. He holds a UEFA A license.

Early career

Prior to joining Southampton, he was a youth development officer at Oxford United and Swansea City. Martin Keown

Martin Keown

Martin Raymond Keown is a former English footballer. Widely regarded as one of the best man-markers of his generation, Keown played for six different football clubs during his career but it was with Arsenal that he will be best remembered. Keown made over three hundred appearances for Arsenal...

, Mark Wright and Garry Parker

Garry Parker

Garry Parker is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder for Luton Town, Hull City, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Leicester City, mostly in the top division of English football, in the 1980s and 1990s. He was capped by his country at under-21 and B international level...

 are just a few of the many players Elias helped into professional football.

Southampton

Elias was with Southampton

Southampton F.C. Academy

Southampton Football Club Academy or Saints Academy is the youth organisation run by Southampton Football Club to encourage and develop young footballers in the South of England...

 for seven years, where he helped transform the Saints into a good production line of young talent. Elias is remembered at Southampton as the man who discovered 17-year-old England striker Theo Walcott

Theo Walcott

Theo James Walcott is an English footballer of Jamaican descent who plays for Arsenal and the England national team. Walcott is a product of the Southampton F.C. Academy. He is a striker who is usually deployed on the right wing as a wide forward to exploit his speed...

. He turned down an offer from Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

 to revamp the club’s youth set up at the start of the 2004/5 season.

Controversy leaving Southampton

On leaving Saints, Elias told the Daily Echo: "The current uncertainty has had something to do with my decision." Elias also accused Michael Wilde

Michael Wilde

Michael Wilde, born on the Wirral, Cheshire in 1952, is a businessman who became Chairman of Southampton Football Club for two periods after the Club's relegation from the Premiership, resigning on 2 April 2009, the day after the Club's holding company, Southampton Leisure Holdings Plc, went into...

 of being "uninterested" in the academy.

Elias’ move to Liverpool is not without controversy. The Chief Executive of Southampton F.C., Jim Hone said that one of his first jobs as Saints chief executive will be to discover whether head of recruitment Elias was the subject of an illegal approach by the Anfield giants prior to joining Liverpool in a similar capacity. Jim Hone said, "There would clearly have been a financial incentive to go to a bigger club like Liverpool and, if Mr Elias didn't leave with the permission of Southampton, we have to ask whether he was tapped up."

There were also fears that Elias might tempt Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale

Gareth Frank Bale is a Welsh footballer who plays for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Wales national team. Bale began his professional career with Southampton in 2005 and was transferred to Tottenham two years later...

 to join him at Liverpool. Bale couldn't sign a professional contract with Southampton until July 16, his 17th birthday, but Elias has given all Saints fans the news they wanted to hear. He said: "Gareth is at the best place he can be right now. I know he's very happy staying with the other academy players at The Lodge and I'm sure Rupert Lowe

Rupert Lowe

Rupert James Graham Lowe is a British businessman, who was the chairman of Southampton Football Club from 1996 to 2006. He regained his power in May 2008, teaming up with Michael Wilde, who had previously forced Lowe out, becoming chairman of the club's parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings...

 arranged a pre-contract agreement with Gareth before he left.”

Liverpool

Elias was appointed Director of Recruitment at Liverpool F.C. Academy, part of Liverpool’s attempt to breathe life into the £10million academy, which has not produced the expected volume of quality players since its opening in 1999. Elias revealed that the doubt surrounding Rupert Lowe's future at the Football Club played a huge part in his decision to move on.

Elias left the Liverpool F.C. Academy on 19 June 2009. The two parties reached a mutual agreement following an internal restructure at The Academy