Promising Southampton and Australian midfielder, George Mells, has linked up with the Greek U17s as they prepare to take on the Ukraine U17s this Wednesday.

It’s believed the FFA have been made aware of the 16 year old’s decision to play for Greece in this friendly match. With no current Australian commitments, it represents a good opportunity for the young player to not only get some valuable experience but also have the chance to impress anyone who might be watching.

Mells, who has already represented Australia in two tournaments and in more than half a dozen games, is said to be looking forward to the challenge of playing with and against some top quality players in his age group. Any thoughts of the former Chelsea player turning his back on Australia should be expelled though as he remains hopeful of representing Australia if he’s ever called up in the future.

George joins the likes of Paul Katsetis (Greece & Catania), Panos Armenakas (Greece & Watford), James Demetriou (Cyprus & Nottingham Forest), Ajdin Hrustic (Bosnia & FC Schalke 04), Cameron Burgess (Scotland & Fulham) and Reno Piscopo (Italy & Inter Milan) to take advantage of their dual nationalities to play international football.

It’s often not received well back home when people hear of young players representing the countries of their heritage. It must be remembered though that they are all well aware that under the international rules that doing so will not rule them out of playing for Australia in the future. Current Socceroos Rhys Williams and Tim Cahill as well as Shane Lowry and Neil Kilkenny have represented other nations in their youth before pledging their allegiance to Australia’s senior national team.

http://footballcentral.com.au/mells-accepts-call-up/

Not much to stress over at this stage, but FFA need to be tracking players like Mells.

Does playing in a YOUTH qualifier tie him to that country for YOUTH tournaments? Ie, Mells plays a youth qualifier for Geeece U17s, I presume he can't then play U17 qualifiers for Australia even though he is eligible for the senior Socceroos just the same.

If he plays 17s for Greece can he play U20s for Australia?

Can someone explain please?

I wish Mel would accept the call-back to Fox Sports :cry:

She's the only reason I've been watching the Winter Olympics.

If a player is in the country where they play for the youth team , then it might mean they are pretty good and roped into the youth team, generally if a player is in ENgland and going to represent Greece they are doing it to get noticed on advice of their agent and are probably struggling.

So if a young player is playing in a foreign league and gets a call up for a national team it means they're struggling? yeah...no...

On what basis did you formulate this load of garbage?

Dean Bouzanis if Liverpool really rated him as a big prospect would he have gone to play for the Greece youth team.

We may very well one day produce a team capable of being very competetive or perhaps even winning the cup, however it seems those players may not even be representing Australia at the time.

They did. Benitez was very vocal about him being the best keeper in the world for his age.

i thought the same thing when i read the title

Obligatory 'cap him' post