Ross Papadakis 
George Mells in action for Avondale FC during the 2023 NPL Victoria Grand Final. Photo: Mark Avellino Photography. Supplied by George Mells.
Once hailed as one of the hottest prospects in Australian football, George Mells’ football career has led him to the NPL Victoria.
At just 18, Mells was a key member of Adelaide United’s 2015/16 championship-winning squad. Under the tutelage of Barcelona legend Guillermo Amor, Mells featured in 24 of 27 league games, playing a pivotal role in securing Adelaide United’s first-ever A-League title.
However, his journey to the A-League began much earlier. At the age of 11, while playing for his local club in Melbourne, he was discovered by an English scout and offered a place to train in Reading FC’s academy, where he spent a couple of sessions before being offered to Chelsea F.C.
After two and a half relatively successful seasons, playing alongside the likes of Dominic Solanke, Mason Mount and Declan Rice, Mells made the move to Southampton F.C, a side playing in the 3rd division and renowned for their youth academy—a move guided by his coach, Michael Beale, who went on to manage Rangers F.C. and Sunderland F.C.
“We took his advice and I went there, I obviously didn’t like it at first,” he said.
“It was something that in hindsight was a good decision.
“It made me grow up a lot going there and they had a different way of playing football and they went about producing players differently.
“It was an eye-opener, I thought I was good here but over there, you’re just another player.”
Despite a successful four-year stint that earned Mells a call-up to both Australia’s U17 side and Greece’s U17s in their UEFA European Championship qualifiers, he ultimately struggled to break into the first team, eventually parting ways with the club at the beginning of the 2014/15 campaign.
After what he described as a ‘very successful trial’ with Olympiacos, where he shared the training ground with Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas and Melbourne Victory’s Nikos Vergos, a deal fell through due to complications with an agent, Mells made the move to Adelaide United.
With the Reds, he won the double in his first season at the club, but the next 12 months saw Mells play only six games in the 2016/17 campaign as his second season was riddled with illness and injury.
After enduring a challenging season, Mells left Adelaide at the end of the season to pursue a new opportunity in Holland, but the deal fell through.
With all A-League squads filled at the commencement of the 2017/18 season, the 20-year-old was unable to secure a club and consequently left without a team for several months until he got a lifeline from Dutch outfit Fortuna Sittard, where he spent a year in the youth team before moving to Brisbane Roar.
Having been brought in by Robbie Fowler who was replaced early in the season, Mells failed to make a senior appearance and his time at the Roar was cut short.
Mells has now spent the past four seasons in the NPL Victoria for Port Melbourne Sharks and now Avondale FC, where he won the NPL Premiership and Championship in 2023, the only footballer in the NPL era (2014-onwards) to have won the A-League and NPL Victoria double.
Now, Mells has established his very own ‘Mells Football Academy’ for young footballers between the ages of 7 to 12 in partnership with Yarraville Glory FC.
“All I’m trying to do is provide a service, where I can provide a bit of professionalism and quality that I received so the kids can get the same messages that I received as a youngster,” he said.
“It’s about sharing my knowledge and giving back to the game, it’s about giving the kids experiences and annotates to what I got overseas and seeing if that can add value to the kids and to Yarraville and their junior program.”
Training will be heavily focused on keeping possession and growing technical skillsets, creativity, game understanding and building a competitive environment.
Mells spoke highly of the influence that his footballing mentors such as Beale and Amor had on his professional football career and his desire to implement that into Mells Football Academy.
“They taught me how to stay humble and take things into your stride and I’ve learnt the way that they did that for me and the ways I responded to their teachings so I feel like I know how to get that across to the kids,” he said.
By working closely with football clubs, Mells aims to establish structured programs to give young players every chance of progressing into professional football.
Mells surmised his current career predicament as “You only get one career and when you’re done, you’re done, I could retire tomorrow and be happy.”
For George Mells, football has been a journey filled with challenges and triumphs, and now, he’s giving back to the sport that shaped who he is today. Whether it’s lifting more silverware or guiding a young player towards their dream, Mells’ passion for the game remains unwavering.