Four years after rejecting an Australian national team call-up ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, 22-year-old Italian club-based forward Cristian Volpato has finalized a nationality switch to represent Australia’s Socceroos on the global stage, football authorities confirmed this week.
Born in Sydney, Volpato currently plies his trade for Italy’s Serie A side Sassuolo. Under FIFA’s international eligibility regulations, the switch is fully permitted: Volpato has never featured in a competitive senior international match for Italy’s senior national team, clearing the path for his change of representation. Football Australia announced Friday that the young attacker has already been added to the Socceroos’ pre-tournament training camp in Los Angeles, where the squad is putting the finishing touches to preparations ahead of head coach naming the final World Cup roster by Monday.
A critical bureaucratic hurdle was cleared this week when Football Australia confirmed it had received an official release letter from the Italian Football Federation, a required step for FIFA to formally approve the eligibility change. This reverses a decision Volpato made back in 2022, when he turned down a Socceroos call-up for the Qatar tournament while playing at Rome’s AS Roma under legendary manager José Mourinho.
Volpato’s addition comes as Italy’s senior national side once again missed out on World Cup qualification, marking the third consecutive tournament that the four-time world champions have failed to book a spot in the finals. For Australia, Volpato brings young attacking talent to a side that kicks off its 2026 FIFA World Cup Group D campaign on June 13 against Turkey in Vancouver. Six days after the opening match, the Socceroos will face the United States in Seattle, before wrapping up group stage play against Paraguay on June 25 at the home stadium of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. In this year’s expanded 48-team World Cup format, the top two teams from each group automatically advance to the round of 32, with the best third-place finishers also claiming spots in the knockout round.