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VOLPATO TALKED UP FOR AUSTRALIA
Australia senior national team manager Graham Arnold needs to act fast by extending an invitation to Cristian Volpato after the young Australian midfielder made his debut for AS Roma at the weekend.
Volpato, 18, came on as a substitute for Frenchman Jordan Veretoutin added time of the Italian Serie A home clash with Inter Milan on Saturday. Inter Milan were able to seal a convincing 3-0 away win over Roma thanks to the first half goals from HakanCalhanoglu, EdinDzeko and Denzel Dumfries.
Reacting to the Roma debut made by Volpato, Tony Basha told The media outlets New Age and New Herald that Australia boss Arnold would do well to extend an invitation to the young Roma player when he unveils his next squad for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the Asian section. Tony Basha is a former adviser and former coach of Volpato. According to him, Australia national team manager Arnold is a great coach and a great guy before adding that he has to pick Volpato in his next World Cup qualifying squad if Roma boss Jose Mourinho has deemed it fit to pick the young midfielder in his team.
Young Volpato is the first Australian player to feature in the Italian Serie A for the first time in five years. The last Aussie to feature in the Italian top flight was Trent Sainsbury in the colours of reigning Italian champions Inter Milan. Sainsbury made a solitary appearance for Inter Milan in the Italian top flight.
Also, Volpato became only the third player to feature in the top five leagues on the European football stage this season. The other two Aussies are shot stopper Mat Ryan (Real Sociedad) and AjdinRrustic (Eintracht Frankfurt).
Roma fans had been calling for Mourinho to give Volpato an opportunity in his team after a series of eye-catching appearances for the youth team this season.