{"id":773908,"date":"2026-07-02T08:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773908\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T08:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:46:13","slug":"world-cup-2026-alessandro-circati-reveals-cristian-volpato-conversation-before-socceroos-switch-parma-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773908\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Alessandro Circati reveals Cristian Volpato conversation before Socceroos switch; Parma game"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS: Socceroos<\/a> defender Alessandro Circati has lifted the lid on the moment Cristian Volpato finally told him he\u2019d switch to Australia<\/a>, revealing how surprised he was at the decision.<\/p>\n

Volpato spoke to media earlier in the week<\/a> from the Socceroos\u2019 previous Oakland base, explaining that his Sassuolo team\u2019s 1-0 loss to Parma was the moment everything changed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cristian Volpato after the Socceroos’ match against Paraguay.\u00a0AP<\/p>\n

Circati is a regular at Parma and played the full match while Volpato came on as a sub.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos centre-back has been trying to convince Volpato to switch from Italy for some time, albeit unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

But in the moments after that match in Parma, everything changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actually came up to me after the game and said to me \u2018I\u2019m going to change\u2019,\u201d Circati recounted before the Socceroos left their Berkeley camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like \u2018really?\u2019 I wasn\u2019t sure. I was like \u2018why now?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he actually followed through with it. I\u2019ve said it before, I did know it was coming but I didn\u2019t know when it was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circati went on to explain that while Volpato had committed verbally, it wasn\u2019t that simple practically, hence the 22-year-old\u2019s mad dash back to Sydney to renew his passport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a simple process. You\u2019ve got to get the clearance, and I don\u2019t know how long that can take,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was obviously very happy for him but he didn\u2019t know and I didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d be able to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circati has had his own switches with nationality, having been born in Italy and represented the under-20s side.<\/p>\n

However, he made his Socceroos<\/a> debut in 2023 and has rarely looked out of place in the jersey since that moment.<\/p>\n

\"Alessandro<\/p>\n

Alessandro Circati.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

His task will now be to stop Mo Salah<\/a> in his tracks when Australia plays Egypt in Dallas for a spot in the round of 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Circati explained the way to navigate that will be all down to staying focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to stay attentive when you mark them, because they can make something out of nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA half chance they can create into anything they want so it\u2019s really about being in control and limit the things they can do and chances they can create.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Mile Jedinak<\/a>, who has come up against Salah in his roles at Premier League<\/a> clubs, wasn\u2019t willing to solely focus on Salah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re looking at them as a collective, we obviously do our analysis on individuals as well as a coaching staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have discussions of what that looks like. They have threats all over the park, they have got guys playing at a very high level, there\u2019s others in there that are doing the job and the business at club level and national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably more of a collective approach and that\u2019s how we pass the message on to our players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS: Socceroos defender Alessandro Circati has lifted the lid on the moment Cristian Volpato finally told him he\u2019d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-773908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773908","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=773908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}