Roma’s manager came to the defense of Giallorossi midfielder Cristian Volpato for his decision to delay his pledge of international allegiance to Australia.
A little about the topic
With Cristian Volpato impressive for the Giallorossi Jose Mourinho this season, the Socceroos were incredibly keen to have the 18-year-old integrated into the Australian national team as soon as possible, due to his right to also represent Italy. The Australian ultimately decided to turn down the chance to represent his country of birth at the 2022 World Cup and Jose stood by the teenager, wondering why Australia called him up in the first place.
What did Mourinho say about Volpato?
Speaking at a press conference, the head coach of the club, Roma, explained that he thinks that this is a personal decision and the club was not involved. According to Jose Mourinho, as a coach, for example, he would refuse to call a player, even a young one, in such a situation.
The Portuguese manager added that he understands that Cristian Volpato is early in his career and that he is growing with the Giallorossi, getting more minutes in consecutive matches. It’s not like last year where Volpato played just one game against Verona and then he didn’t play anymore, Jose thinks he’s now played four games in a row.
Mourinho says Cristian Volpato is in a developmental phase where he thinks he should focus on building his future rather than specific decisions where perhaps someone else wants to speed up a process that shouldn’t be speeded up.
What did Christian Volpato say?
Cristian responded to the endless speculation regarding his international future on social media by writing on IG that he has seen a lot of speculation about the decisions he allegedly made internationally. According to Cristian Volpato, the truth is that he is only at the beginning of his professional career and he is fully focused on continuing this process at Roma. Any urgent decision on its international future at this early stage risks being extremely premature.
Cristian Volpato says he will have plenty of time to make a decision that feels right to him, but for now he knows his focus is to keep working hard every day to keep improving as a player.