Jose Mourinho’s 18-year-old AS Roma player, Cristian Volpato, has rejected the call-up to the Australian national team, which will feature in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Cristian Volpato’s decision to refuse the opportunity to appear with the Australian national team at the Qatar 2022 World Cup suddenly raised questions. A number of speculations underlying Cristian Volpato’s refusal to appear with the Australian national team at the Qatar 2022 World Cup began to emerge.
The midfielder who was born in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia, reportedly prefers to wait for the opportunity to defend the Italian national team Although born in Australia, Cristian Volpato is recorded to have Italian citizenship. He has also appeared with the Italian U19 and U20 national teams on several occasions this year. That situation then made Cristian Volpato reportedly preferring to wait for the opportunity to appear with the Italian national team rather than defend Australia at the 2022 World Cup Qatar.
In the midst of the speculation, Cristian Volpato gave an explanation regarding his decision to reject the call for the Australian national team. Cristian Volpato admits that he is focusing on his career at AS Roma. He also does not want to rush in making decisions at the international level.
According to Cristian Volpato, hasty decisions will make his international career premature. “I’ve seen a lot of speculation about the decisions I should have taken at international level,” Volpato said on his personal Instagram account. “Actually I’ve just started my professional career and I’m really focused on continuing that process at Roma. Making a hasty decision about my future at national team level at this early stage risks being very premature,” added Volpato.
Volpato believes the opportunity will come again and he can make decisions at the right time. “There will be plenty of time for me to make decisions that feel right to me, but for now, I know my focus is on working hard to keep improving as a player,” said Volpato.
Previously, Volpato’s rejection of the call for the Australian national team was expressed by the coach, Graham Arnold. Football Italia wrote, Graham Arnold as the coach of the Australian national team had contacted Cristian Volpato to invite the player to appear in the 2022 World Cup. However, Volpato did not agree with Arnold’s plan and refused to join the Australian squad.
“He (Volpato) told me he wanted to think about it and talk to people close to him to try to understand what was best for his career,” said Graham Arnold. “He then decided to turn down my offer to play for Australia in Qatar. It was his decision. Now I prefer to focus on the players we have and the young players who will come. Cristian doesn’t want to make big decisions at this time in his career and that’s not a problem,” said Arnold.
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho as AS Roma coach has also commented on the polemic of Volpato’s summons to the Australian national team. Jose Mourinho seemed to defend the player. Instead, he satirized the Australians who seemed to make a shortcut for Volpato.
“He is in a phase of development where I think he has to focus on building his future and not on certain decisions,” said Mourinho. “Maybe someone else wants to speed up a process that shouldn’t be accelerated,” Mourinho added.
