Cristian Volpato is Italian football’s make-good to Australia, a peace offering set to soothe 20 years of pain. The winger flipped allegiances so he could represent the Socceroos on the eve of the World Cup, but his career was shaped by those responsible for perhaps the greatest heartache of Australian football.
In the closest the Socceroos have come to a World Cup knockout victory, the team remembered as the “golden generation” and led by Mark Viduka were headed for extra time in 2006 against Italy when Fabio Grosso won a penalty, converted by Francesco Totti, for the eventual champions.
Volpato says he has watched the match “like a hundred times”, and it is “crazy” the connections he shares with one of Australian football’s most dramatic moments.
“My ex-agent was Totti, who scored, and then my coach is the one who won the penalty so it’s a bit like … you know what I mean?” he said, struggling to find words to explain the coincidence.
Totti stewarded Volpato through the early years of his career in Italy and at Sassuolo he has been playing under Grosso, although the former Italy defender took the Fiorentina job this month.
“I spoke to Grosso, he just remembers he didn’t even know what he was doing, he felt a bit of contact, he went down,” Volpato says. “They got the pen, Totti, and he just shot as hard as he could, he said.”
The decision was widely seen as a travesty – at least in Australia. Volpato sees lessons in the incident, however, as the Socceroos head into their match against Egypt on Friday (Saturday AEST) in Dallas still looking for their first World Cup knockout victory 20 years later.
“They are also small details that can change a game,” he says. “We have to use that in our game as well, because small details can make a big, big difference.”
The 22-year-old made his first start of the World Cup against Paraguay, and looked dangerous down the right flank alongside Jordy Bos.
His late inclusion in the Socceroos World Cup squad was a surprise, but it almost never happened. Volpato’s Australian passport had expired, so he had to dash back to Sydney on the eve of the tournament. “Thank God, and I’m thankful to the people at the passport place who helped me get it quickly,” he says.
Volpato, a junior Italy international, had been in regular contact with Australian coaching staff for years, but he finally decided to make the switch in late May, after a match between his club and Parma, where the Socceroos defender Alessandro Circati plays.
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“Something clicked and my heart said: ‘Just go, I think you belong there,’” he says. “I didn’t want to come being 50-50, if I wanted to come it’s because I wanted to come and I felt it was right.”
It represents a homecoming for the player who grew up in Sydney, but was rejected by two Australian football academies at age 16. “I got told from both of them that basically I’m not good enough to play,” he says.
“I always wanted to go to Italy as a kid, so I think it [worked] out perfectly to be honest because then straight after, I just remember the car ride home with my dad. I was crying. And he just says: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll go to Italy now and we’ll try it.’”
His mother sold her shop to move to Italy with him, and he was successful in securing a place in the academy of the Serie A giants Roma. “Thank God I made the trial and my life changed from there,” Volpato says. “I feel like I have to give a lot as well to Italy because they gave me a second opportunity. From there, I also got picked for the Italian team first, so I mean, I just accepted it.”
Before he switched allegiances to Australia, Volpato was the subject of online trolling from Socceroos fans who felt he had neglected the country he grew up in. “I’m human like everyone else, I’m addicted to my phone like 90% of the people as well in the world,” he says. “There’s going to be good things [said about you], there’s going to be bad things, but I feel like as a footballer, you’ve just got to be resilient, and sometimes you can use it as fuel as well.”
Now Socceroos fans have their own chant for him, declaring Volpato as “one of our own”. The player was sent the videos of the singing by his family, which has helped validate his decision to choose Australia over Italy. “I felt like it was right,” he says. “I felt like I can be myself, and I can show myself here more.”
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