\u2018The club at the time saw otherwise\u2019: How Popovic\u2019s man management has a star ready to give everything<\/a> <\/p>\n\u201cSo maybe I was in my comfort zone a bit playing for Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think really something I don\u2019t know in my heart just said, I think it\u2019s time to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cLike a lot of Australians, (we) were brought up being both, being something else and Australian. And obviously you don\u2019t want to choose one or the other. It\u2019s been hard, obviously I do feel Australian, so it felt really good coming here and being brought in by the boys and speaking English.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was the turning point in his decision making?<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in a World Cup for your nation is something unreal and yeah, I think, playing for Italy also was good and amazing, but maybe I think when I was 18, maybe I was a bit too young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Popovic says Volpato is playing catch up with his fitness as he vies to become a difference maker for the Socceroos at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
All things going to plan, the Sassuolo attacker should make his Socceroos debut in San Diego against Switzerland on Sunday AEST \u2013 but \u2013 Popovic revealed the 22-year-old is still lagging when it comes to his fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to get him fit, he hasn\u2019t played a lot of football and he had eight to nine days off before he joined us,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I compare him to the group he\u2019s probably at the bottom in terms of his conditioning right now.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG20260605190314_01-1024x576.webp\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s working hard, he\u2019s trying to get up to speed and we\u2019ve seen some good inroads in the last couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volpato might play in Serie A when with his club duties, but the work in Oakland has left him in no doubt as to the quality he has just joined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also been shocked by the level of how professional it is here and also the level of the the players and the trainings,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really, really high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been really happy with that and also, with the fans it was amazing, seeing all the people in the green and gold and cheering us on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volpato\u2019s late inclusion led to questions about how quickly he would integrate into the squad, which he has joined for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s fine. He\u2019s a good player, a good young player, talented, good young man,\u201d Popovic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019ve had that time with him in February, there\u2019s no doubts about him as a person or as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the game against Switzerland will give Popovic a chance to look at a range of players, including Volpato.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game you want to try and win, but of course our focus is on Turkey and and it was that way with the Mexico game.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win the match but with some ideas and to try some certain players in certain positions and have some ideas for that first game for Turkey and this will be the same.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780725615_732_YENGI-STILL-1024x576.webp\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cTry and get more players minutes. Because there are some players that haven\u2019t played since early May and some even earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you really need to try and give some minutes to have just the game time and confidence in themselves that if required next week that they\u2019re ready to go. So we\u2019re just trying to balance continuity with giving minutes to players. So if we get that and hopefully everyone\u2019s healthy after the game, then we\u2019ll be very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those players in contention for a debut is striker Tete Yengi.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot more game time, than Cristian, but we tried to bring his loads quite low because he really had a busy schedule playing a lot of games, a lot of minutes in every three or four days and something he wasn\u2019t accustomed to until he got to Japan. so we just try to keep him healthy and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristian Volpato has spoken for the first time since his first Socceroos call-up admitting the \u201cbig decision\u201d had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,217534,596,85,345124],"class_list":["post-718432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cristian-volpato","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-tete-yengi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}