Western United is once again featuring prominently in the youth national team space with Matthew Grimaldi, Rhys Bozinovski, Abel Walatee and Kane Vidmar called into the Australia Under 23’s next month.
The four Green and Black stars will join the rest of the squad in Seoul for a two-match series against Korea Republic at the start of June.
The selections continue a strong 12 months for all four players having featured regularly in Tony Vidmar’s side in recent camps, with Anthony Frost also continuing his work as an assistant coach with the squad.
Bozinovski scored for the Under 23’s against Vanuatu in September while Grimaldi has been on fire for the national side, also scoring in that camp as well as in a training game against Western Sydney Wanderers in December and against Qatar at the Doha International U-23 Cup in March.
Domestically, Bozinovski and Grimaldi have both featured in every single match and scored five goals each, continuing to shine as Western United Academy graduates in the first team.
In his first full professional season, Walatee has racked up 21 appearances and scored three goals while Kane Vidmar scored the first senior goal of his career against Adelaide United.
Western United General Manager of Football Mal Impiombato highlighted the successes of each player at both club and international level.
“Matthew, Rhys, Abel and Kane continue to demonstrate incredible work rate and high quality on and off the pitch and are richly deserving of this recognition,” he said.
“That they are being consistently selected for these squads is a reflection of the work they are doing in camps as well as the impressive form they have shown domestically.
“We are delighted with the impact that our young players have made in the Isuzu UTE A-League this season, in particular these four, and look forward to continuing to foster development opportunities for talented players to achieve these kinds of successes.”
This Under 23’s adds to a week full of international selections for Western United with nine young talents picked to represent their countries.
Dylan Leonard will head into an Under 18’s camp in Switzerland next month, Luka Coveny and Harry Casci have been selected in the New Zealand Under 20’s side for a trip to Chile and Western United Academy talents John Woldegiorgis and Aidan Adams have both represented New Zealand at Under-16 level at the Men’s U16 FIFA Youth Series in Zurich.
