{"id":285183,"date":"2025-07-23T12:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285183\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T12:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:28:14","slug":"manchester-united-rising-star-signs-professional-contract-at-old-trafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285183\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United rising star signs professional contract at Old Trafford"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Overy was signed to the academy last summer and has now signed a professional contract with Man United.James Overy has signed a professional deal.(Image: Manchester United)<\/p>\n

Manchester United youngster James Overy has signed a professional contract with the club.<\/p>\n

United signed Overy to the academy on a scholarship deal last summer and the defender has now been rewarded with a professional contract, which is recognition of his potential.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old trained with the first-team at Carrington in May. Overy was among a large group of youngsters who trained ahead of facing Chelsea<\/a> in the Premier League<\/a>, with the likes of Chido Obi, Godwill Kukonki, Harry Amass, James Scanlon and Jaydan Kamason also taking part.<\/p>\n

Shortly after signing for United, Overy picked up an injury and spent eight months on the sidelines. The promising right-back finally made his debut for the Under-18s in February.<\/p>\n

After Overy’s debut for the academy, former U18 manager Adam Lawrence reflected on his road to recovery from injury and told MUTV: \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard for James because obviously he\u2019s made the move from Australia and he\u2019s a terrific lad, first of all.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he got injured in pre-season and you can see he\u2019s such a great lad, a great kid and has such good energy and he wanted to be back. A real credit to him because he stayed positive throughout.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not affected him in terms of his positivity. And listen, it\u2019s obviously disappointing what\u2019s happened in the game, but for him to be back and playing football again is brilliant.”<\/p>\n

Overy has signed a professional deal after the Manchester Evening News revealed Kukonki, another young defender, was also set to sign professional terms with the club<\/a> following talks.<\/p>\n

The opportunity to sign a professional contract is an important milestone in a youngster’s career.<\/p>\n

Overy qualifies to represent Australia, England and Scotland on the international stage.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Here at the Manchester Evening News, we\u2019re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester United coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n

Make sure you don\u2019t miss out on the latest United news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a><\/strong> to subscribe.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a><\/strong> to be sent all the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/p>\n

And finally, if you\u2019d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Manchester is Red podcast, featuring The Samuel Luckhurst Show and The Midweek Debate. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a><\/strong> and Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/strong>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Overy was signed to the academy last summer and has now signed a professional contract with Man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,17092,423,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-285183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-united-academy","13":"tag-manchester-united-fc","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114902552013506858","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}