This week, England called up a footballer born in Melbourne.
His name is William Ferdinand Crek and he’s just 14 years old, yet he is already attracting major attention from across the football world.
Ferdinand has previously been called up by Croatia at under-14 level, while he is also eligible to represent Australia, the Philippines and Spain, where he currently lives and plays for Barcelona.
The midfielder, who can also play on the wing, has been named in England’s under-15 squad for three friendlies this month against Iceland, Spain and Italy.
14 year-old Barcelona midfielder William Ferdinand has just been called up to the England U15 squad.👀🏴
This is Ferdinand’s second England U15 call-up – he did receive one two months ago, but wasn’t able to attend due to injury.❌
Before joining Barcelona, the young midfielder… pic.twitter.com/6DxVDqr8k1
— The Talent Hunter 🎯 (@thetalenthunt3r) December 9, 2025
It is actually his second call-up for the Three Lions, having been unable to attend a camp in October due to injury.
Before joining Barcelona’s academy, where he has spent the last five years, Ferdinand also spent two years with Real Madrid and a year with Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven.
The teenager first went viral when he was just seven years old, featuring in a YouTube video with Spanish social media star Delantero09.
The video, titled ‘7-YEAR-OLD BOY CHALLENGES ME 1-ON-1 PLAYING SOCCER ft William Cvek’ has received over 15 million views and over 4,000 comments, at time of writing, since being posted six years ago.
According to TalkSPORT, Ferdinand played in the 20th Annual Memorial of the Vukovar Defenders U14 youth tournament in April 2024, a competition organised by the Croatian Football Federation to showcase the nation’s emerging talents – and was one of the youngest players on show.
Given interest from football superpowers like England and Croatia – who coincidentally meet at next year’s World Cup – Australia faces a significant task to convince the teen to pull on the green and gold, particularly given he is based in Europe.
This is not the first time a potential star has had the option of picking the Socceroos or one of the world’s bigger football nations.
Other obvious instances include Cristian Volpato – who turned down a call-up to the last World Cup to pledge his allegiance to Italy – Alessandro Circati, who picked Australia over the Azzurri, Lyndon Dykes – who is set to play for Scotland and the World Cup – and that is just the start of a long list that goes back decades.
Historically, other significant examples include Christian Vieri (Italy) and Josip Simunic (Croatia), while players like Mark Viduka went the other way.
For now, at just 14 years old, Ferdinand is one to watch.