From Roma’s Primavera team to Sassuolo, up to the most delicate crossroads: according to Schira, the Socceroos coach met him to take him to the 2026 World Cup
Jacopo Mandò –
Cristian Volpato with Roma: dual citizenship now weighs on the 2026 World Cup – Romaforever.it
Here we go again: Cristian Volpato returns to the center of a duel that goes beyond the market and touches on identity. Nicolò Schira says that Tony Popovicct of Australia, was in Italy last week to speak live with the Sassuolo winger and try to convince him to choose the Socceroos with a view to the 2026 World Cup.
Rome in the heart, but the World Cup “weighs”
Volpato it is a profile that a Trigoria they remember well: arrived in 2020, debuted in the first team with Mourinho and first flashes in Serie A before the transfer to Sassuolo.
And here is the point: for a class 2003, the perspective of play a World Cup it’s not a detail. Australia has been pressing for years: in 2022 Volpato refused the call for the Qatar, taking time on its international future.
Because it can really happen
To date Volpato he wore blue in the youth team (untilUnder 21complete with goals in qualifying), but it is not yet linked to Italy at senior national team level: and this keeps the door open to a different choice, especially considering that it is born in Australia.
In Australia, in fact, the topic is treated as a concrete “mission”: several local media speak openly about staff dei Socceroos in Italia to try to close the game.
The feeling is that, this time, it’s not just a rumor: it’s a call to choose. And for the Roma it would be one of those modern paradoxes—grow up Trigoria, you dream of the blue, and end up chasing the World under another flag.