{"id":748272,"date":"2026-06-20T06:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:20:15","slug":"world-cup-cristian-volpato-is-now-bonded-to-the-socceroos-and-that-can-only-be-good-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/748272\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Cristian Volpato is now bonded to the Socceroos, and that can only be good for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristian Volpato has played just 74 minutes of soccer for Australia, but against the United States he showed exactly why the Socceroos were so keen to recruit him.<\/p>\n

The 22-year old showed the class and composure some of his teammates had struggled to find in a firey game in which the USA side relentlessly closed down Australia’s players.<\/p>\n

With just 45 minutes in a warm-up game against Switzerland under his belt, Tony Popovic opted to wait until the US players were tiring before injecting the winger into the game.<\/p>\n

He immediately played a lovely ball into space for Nestory Irankunda, and then laid off the pass for Connor Metcalfe’s effort.<\/p>\n

\"Cristian<\/p>\n

Volpato says he wishes he switched allegiances sooner following his positive inclusion in the squad. (Ezra Shaw – FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Volpato should have scored himself as well.<\/p>\n

And in his 29 minutes, he managed more dribbles than any of his teammates.<\/p>\n

All-in-all, on a disappointing day for the Socceroos, they may have found another star.<\/p>\n

“I’m a player that loves to take the risk,” Volpato said.<\/p>\n

“I think in football you have to take a risk to get the reward.”<\/p>\n

I would have done it sooner<\/p>\n

Volpato’s decision to switch his allegiance from Italy to Australia came at the last second, and he was parachuted into the Socceroos pre-World Cup camp days before the squad was announced.<\/p>\n

The move was met with some ire by supporters, and Volpato himself said he wishes he had made the decision sooner.<\/p>\n

\"Socceroos<\/p>\n

Volapto says he struggled to keep his emotions in check during the national anthem. (Jared C. Tilton – FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Even in the first game [against T\u00fcrkiye], when we were singing the national anthem, I was getting goosebumps,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Just walking out today, I was tearing up. It was amazing. If I knew about this, I would have come a long time ago.<\/p>\n

“Seeing all my family, my friends there in the stands, it made me tear up and made me want to give everything for them.<\/p>\n

“Today was a special day to make my debut, and I hope there are many more to come.”<\/p>\n

The Italian Connection<\/p>\n

Volpato isn’t the only player in the Socceroos squad to have strong Italian roots.<\/p>\n

Alessandro Circati also came through the Italian youth system, representing the Azzurri at under-19, -20, and -21 level before he committed to Australia.<\/p>\n

“We actually met in the Italian team,” Volpato said.<\/p>\n

“Two Aussies in the Italian team was amazing. We’ve always been in contact.<\/p>\n

\"Alessandro<\/p>\n

Alessandro Circati and Cristian Volpato came through the Italian youth system together. (Getty Images: Ercin Erturk\/Anadolu)<\/p>\n

“He’s always been in Italy, and he’s a really good guy. He’s always helped me.<\/p>\n

“He’s helped me settle in here, and he’s a wonderful player, outstanding player.”<\/p>\n

More on FIFA World Cup 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristian Volpato has played just 74 minutes of soccer for Australia, but against the United States he showed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,217534,13201,44,13198,42150,588,348435],"class_list":["post-748272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cristian-volpato","tag-fifa","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-socceroos","tag-sport","tag-volpato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748272","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=748272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}