Monza's Australian on the fast track to success

Like Terrorist, Volpato should have his passport ripped up.

Interesting piece - thanks, TSS.

Thanks

There is no doubt we need to do more to make sure we corral these players that are dispersed all over the world, with an eye on locking them in to play for the national team. Countries in Europe that have a large diaspora but small-ish population have been doing it for years. Eg: Croatia and Serbia. There have even been tug of wars between Poland and Germany in the past as well. And look at womens football. The Philippines are now heading to the WC here, because Staj did the groundwork of locating potential players spread around the globe. It's not just an Aus problem.

I know he's not of Italian heritage, but just ask Cam Devlin

Love your work Scout. There was a highly informed poster for one of the articles during the last week that argued Australia is not really producing any significant talent. Ahhhhhh, I beg to differ! So, doing the mathematics, Volpato is playing for the Italian U19s, which means his formative years i.e. 7-11 years old, are around 2010 to 2014, and the same probably goes for Circati, whereas Treffiletti would be about 2014 to 2018. If we have produced those kids during that time period, what are we going to see emerge in the next 5 to 10 years considering the numbers playing. I have a nephew playing junior NPL. Those kids are really looked after. The boy has told me that the Jets have visited a few times and potentially, Apparently Craig Deans will be coaching his team this year. You should see how pumped the lad is. Summer will be way too long for the boy. Whether these kids are playing in Meekathara Heights or for Western Dunedoo FC, we need to be fostering allegiance, an indisputable desire to put on that gold shirt. Be it through player visits, incorporating vision of the national team into training, there should be a single mindset, I want to be the next Jackson Irvine, Aidan Hrustic or Mat Ryan. I would suggest to do that, we need to raise the profile our Australian players so that the kids know who they are, what their specialist position is and where theyre playing. I remember the old NSL cards. Buy some bubblegum and you get half a dozen cards with players faces on them. The only Newcastle KB United NSL card I needed was Kenny Boden. I still have those cards. As much as we make football a part of kids lives we have to make our A-League players and our National Team players part of their lives. Bring on the football, and keep the faith

Thanks for the article SS. It’s great to see Deng, Mabil and Kuol in our Socceroos squad. How soon, or do you think the Tourre boys, Irakunda or Dukuly will appear in the men’s team?

As in, if Volpato went for Italy initially he could still swap to Australia but if he did then that would be it - no more Italy.

So true - which is why A League clubs should be locking younger guys to multi-year contracts so they can cash in.

Without thinking of the implications too closely, I'd argue "one swap and you're done".

For all the bagging of the A League, it is something we seem to be doing pretty well currently, especially in recent COVID and post COVID times. That is fill our squads with young u23 players, and get them on the pitch. Most our A League clubs all have local quality and exciting players on the bench, or coming off the bench. Even a few starters. This really should be the future of the A League's direction; developing players in that precarious age between junior and professional. Scotland has obviously found out market, Netherlands have also done well picking up young Aussie players in the past. Not long before the rest of the world realise the quality talent at rock bottom prices we have here.

Under this "one swap" proposal, can they dilly dally between their 2 preferred nations, or once they make the "one swap", are they now locked into that choice?

Pennington was born and raised in Rome

What about Piscopo he moved to Italy at 13 and played for Italian youth sides. What happened to the cap Piscopo before Italy take him articles. WHat about Max Vieri he moved even earlier what a trade, Christian Vieri for Max Vieri.

Very interesting article. Love these articles on young players The point I'd like to make is that we are now again producing decent players, be it of Italian decent or South Sudanese decent, lets go Aussie football.

Australia seems peculiarly disadvantaged by national team eligibility rules because a huge proportion of our footballers are immigrants who qualify for more than one country. Many of those footballers came to Australia when they were young and Australia is the country that has invested most in developing their football skills. It seems grossly unfair that other countries are encouraged to poach our investment by simply picking one of our products in one of their games (albeit with some restrictions). For us, a fairer 'one swap' rule would allow someone to play for one heritage country of their choice, or, for the country where they spent the greatest part of their formative years. And they should be able to swap to the country that developed them at any time, regardless of when or where they have played for another country. So, for example, someone like Cristian Volpato, who has Italian heritage but was born and raised in Australia, should be able to play for Italy at any level any number of times and still be able to swap to Australia (but only Australia). And someone like Garang Kuol, who has South Sudanese heritage but spent 12 of his under-18 years in Australia, should be able to play for South Sudan at any level any number of times and still be able to swap to Australia (but only Australia). There would still be just one swap allowed between heritage choice and development country but it could be done at any time. It is patently silly that Australia can permanently hold players like Martin Boyle and Harry Souttar, who were born and raised in Scotland and have never lived in Australia, and yet permanently lose players like Volpato and Kuol, who have spent all or most of their lives in Australia.