Manchester United rising youngster James Overy has earned his maiden call-up from the Australian first team.
Luckily for the Red Devils, their academy is brimming with exciting young talents, and this includes the 17-year-old right-back.
The young player started his career at one of Australia’s biggest clubs, Perth Glory, before arriving in England through the gates of Newton Abbot Spurs in 2024. After a short stint with the minnows, Overy was poached by Man Utd in 2024.
Since joining the Premier League giants, the young Aussie has established himself as one of the most promising young full-backs at Carrington. One source told the Daily Mail that the teenager has ‘one hell of a future ahead him’.
Man United youngster James Overy earns Australia senior call-up
This season, Overy has been featuring for both Man Utd’s U18 and U21 sides, and his exploits have now gained him the opportunity to represent his nation on the senior level.
Head coach Tony Popovic has surprisingly added the young right-back to his squad for the November international break.
✈️🇺🇸 The CommBank #Socceroos squad for our November friendlies in North America is here! 🇻🇪🇨🇴
📋 Tony Popovic has named a 26-man squad, featuring 11 changes for our matches against Venezuela and Colombia.
🗞️ Details: https://t.co/YXv5d6tUJK#ForeverGolden pic.twitter.com/rm4tBCEmwU
— CommBank Socceroos (@Socceroos) November 6, 2025
The Socceroos have already qualified for next summer’s World Cup, but the manager will have the opportunity to make some experiments in the next two friendlies against Colombia and Venezuela.
Therefore, Overy will have the chance to impress Popovic and potentially challenge for a place in the World Cup squad.
Why Australia decided to call up Overy
It should also be noted that the teenager holds dual citizenship and has already featured twice for Scotland U19. Therefore, the Australian football federation is probably keen to lock him down by handing him his senior debut.
| Overy’s international career | Appearances | Goals |
| Australia U20 | 2 | 0 |
| Scotland U19 | 2 | 0 |
| Australia U18 | 3 | 0 |
Under FIFA rules, players can freely change international allegiance while on youth levels, but switching nations becomes far more complicated after featuring for a senior national team in a competitive fixture.
So while playing a friendly on the senior level won’t legally bind Overy to Australia, his involvement could still swing the favour in the Socceroos’ direction, with the player feeling the manager’s faith in his potential.
That’s all you ever hear from Utd about our promising youth talent. Unfortunately we don’t give them a proper chance in the first team to prove themselves. Some of our youth are better than the first team, but we will continue to buy incompetent players like Dalot, Ugarte and several more. Give the youth a proper run in the team not just 2 minutes at the end of a game and say they didn’t make an impact.
I’m sure you would be one of the first to complain if we went 4,5 or 6 games without a win. Because the KID isn’t ready yet. Football is a result business. Winning is the first priority. Unfortunately Grimsby took the younger talents chances of progressing away this season