McAtee, who made 15 Premier League appearances and scored three goals for City last season, heads to Slovakia as the new England captain following the injury of Taylor Harwood-Bellis which required the Southampton defender to have knee surgery.
He described the captaincy as an honour, but admitted he will lean on other members of the squad for their leadership qualities too.
Speaking at Dunajska Streda’s DAC Stadium, McAtee said of his new role with England: “It's an honour to be captain of the 21 squad. Taylor's obviously going to be a big miss, but it's an honour in itself.
“We do have a group of leaders. We have some meetings throughout the day. But I'm just trying to develop my character, my leadership skills. Some of the lads, Harvey (Elliott), Tino (Livramento), Crezzy (Charlie Cresswell), have obviously got the experience at the last one (Euros).”
McAtee’s decision to join up with England rather than Manchester City at the Club World Cup goes against two of his teammates, Liam Delap and Jobe Bellingham, who head to the States with new clubs, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund, respectively.
For the winger, it was his decision to make and one that wasn’t hard to make.
He explained: “I think the main thing was obviously game time and maybe my importance to this group. I've never had an international tournament before, so I wanted to come here.
“At the start of the season, it was one of my goals to qualify with the group to the Euros and I wanted to see it through.
“I just had a little conversation (with Manchester City). It wasn't a long one, it was just a little one of what I wanted to do and it was easy as that.”
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