James John McAtee (born 18 October 2002) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

or winger for club

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

and the

England national under-21 team The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is the national under-21 association football team of England, under the control of the Football Association. It is considered to be the feeder team ...

Club career

Early career

McAtee made his first appearance against a senior team for

's EDS squad in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

defeat against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

on 29 October 2019. During the 2020–21 season McAtee also played in the EFL Trophy victories over

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...

, in which he played against his older brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third level of the English football league system. The club was formed in 1897 as Mans ...

as well as the defeat against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

. On 24 August 2021 he scored in a 3–0 victory over

. In the 2021/22 season, he made 28 appearances for the Elite Development Squad (EDS), earning him the Players' Player of the Year award. In November 2020 McAtee scored in a 3–2 victory against Chelsea in the final of the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

and subsequently scored eight goals with nine assists in twenty-three appearances as City were champions of 2020–21 Premier League 2. On 21 September 2021, McAtee made his senior debut as a substitute for Josh Wilson-Esbrand in City's 6–1 home win over

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

in the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. On 21 November 2021, McAtee made his

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

debut as a substitute for

Cole Palmer Cole Jermaine Palmer (born 6 May 2002) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or Winger (association football), winger for club Chelsea F.C., Chelsea and the England national football te ...

in a 3–0 home win over Everton.

Loans to Sheffield United

On 4 July 2022, McAtee joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

on a season-long loan alongside

teammate Tommy Doyle. Sheffield United would progress to the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

semi-final to face

, alongside Doyle, he was unable to play in the semi-final against his parent club due to FA competition rules forbidding loan players from facing their parent clubs. During pre-season, McAtee returned to City and was part of the first team's squad that travelled to Asia. On 11 August 2023 he came on as an 89th-minute substitute for

Kyle Walker Kyle Andrew Walker (born 28 May 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club AC Milan, on loan from club Manchester City, and the England national team. Walker started his career at his boyhood club Sheffi ...

in City's opening day

victory at

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

. On 27 August he was an unused substitute in the 2–1 win away at Sheffield United. Five days later on 1 September, he re-joined Sheffield United on a season-long loan. On 9 December 2023, McAtee scored his first Premier League goal against Brentford, the solo goal in Sheffield United's 1–0 win.

Return to Manchester City

For the 2024–25 season, McAtee rejoined City and featured in their USA pre-season tour. On 1 October 2024, McAtee scored his first City goal in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

in a 4–0 win over Slovan Bratislava after coming on as a substitute for

Erling Haaland Erling Braut Haaland (, ; born 21 July 2000) is a Norwegian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and the Norway national football te ...

. On 11 January 2025, McAtee scored the first hat-trick of his career in an 8–0 home victory over Salford City in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

. On 19 January, McAtee scored his first Premier League goal for Manchester City, scoring the sixth goal of a 6–0 away victory at

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

International career

In November 2019, McAtee made his international debut for England U18 and scored twice in a 4–4 draw with Norway. On 6 September 2021, he scored one of

England U20 England national under-20 football team, also known as England Under-20s or England U20(s) or England Men's Elite Squad, represents England in association football at an under-20 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the gov ...

's goals in a 6–1 win over

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. On 6 June 2022, McAtee received his first call up to the England U21s. On 10 June 2022, McAtee made his U21 debut during a

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition to determine the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Romania and Georgia in the 2023 UEFA European Under- ...

5–0 victory away to

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

. On 6 June 2025, it was confirmed that McAtee would captain England at the

2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2025) is the ongoing 25th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (28th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth Assoc ...

Personal life

McAtee is the younger brother of

striker

John McAtee John George McAtee (born 23 July 1999) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for club Bolton Wanderers. He has previously played for Shrewsbury Town where he began his career, taking in loan spells with Halesowen Town, AFC Telford ...

. They are from

Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of central Salford, and of Manchester. Walkden has been designated as one of seven main town centres in the City of Salford, and now largely functions as a r ...

. Their father, paternal grandfather and great-uncles played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

professionally, and the football players and managers Alan Ball Sr. and

Alan Ball Jr. Alan James Ball (12 May 1945 – 25 April 2007) was an English professional football player and manager. Often regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he won the 1966 World Cup with England and played for various clubs, scor ...

are their maternal great-grandfather and great-uncle respectively.

Career statistics

Honours

Manchester City Youth *

: 2019–20 Manchester City *

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is Football in England, English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual * Manchester City EDS Players' Player of the Year: 2021–22 *

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of Football in England, English youth association football, football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Th ...

Player of the Month: August 2021 *

Player of the Season: 2021–22 * Sheffield United Young Player of the Year:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester City F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:McAtee, James 2002 births Living people Footballers from Salford English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester City F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players England men's youth international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers 21st-century English sportsmen Ball family (association football)