18-year-old Roma star Cristian Volpato speaks out after rejecting chance to play for Australia at the World Cup

Roma’s 18-year-old star Cristian Volpato has spoken out after rejecting the chance to play for Australia at the World Cup.

Socceroos boss Graham Arnold named his 26-man squad for the tournament in Qatar on Tuesday and Volpato’s name was nowhere to be found.

Arnold later revealed on Fox Sports that the Roma midfielder declined the offer to represent Australia. He said: “I pretty much told him yesterday he was in the 26-man squad.

“He wanted to go away and think about it. He wanted to speak to the people around him that helped guide his career.”

Arnold continued: “And he came back last night and declined the offer to come and play for Australia at the World Cup. That’s his decision at the end of the day.”

The 2️⃣6️⃣ players heading to our sixth @FIFAWorldCup 🫡✈️
#GiveIt100 #Socceroos pic.twitter.com/7G6A6KbEpk

— Socceroos (@Socceroos) November 8, 2022

Now, Volpato has revealed why he made the decision not to go to the World Cup representing his birth country.

The 18-year-old wrote on Instagram: “I’ve seen lots of speculation about decisions I have supposedly taken at international level: the truth is I am just at the start of my professional career and I am totally focused on continuing that process at Roma.

“Making any sort of rushed decision about my international future at this early stage risks being extremely premature.

“There will be plenty of time for me to make the decision that feels right for me, but right now I know my focus needs to be continuing to work hard each and every day in order to continue improving as a player.”

Despite his rejection, Arnold still believes Volpato could still play for the Socceroos in the future.

He added: “Cristian is a great kid. It's an extremely difficult decision for the kid to make and he's got people around him who have given him advice.

“He wants to make this big decision when there are two countries he can play for in Australia and Italy.

“He made that decision and he declined our opportunity to come and play for Australia at the World Cup. It doesn't mean that he won't do that in the future.”

Australia will kick off their World Cup campaign on November 22, against defending champions France.