Bio

Cristian Volpato (born 15 November 2003) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as attacking midfielder for Serie A club Roma. Born in Australia, Volpato has represented Italy internationally at youth level since 2022. Early life Volpato was born in Camperdown, an inner western suburb of Sydney in Australia. Club career Youth career Volpato first started playing football in Abbotsford, still in Sydney suburbs, where he was a very prolific goalscorer. This allowed him to take his first steps into professional football, at Andrea Icardi's AC Milan Soccer School, Sydney FC and the Western Sydney Wanderers academy. He soon earned a trial in the AS Roma Youth Sector through Fabrizio Piccareta. After a few months in Rome where he was able to demonstrate his attacking abilities, the young footballer signed a three-year-contract with the club from the Italian capital in January 2020. A month later he also joined Francesco Totti's agency, whilst he had already taken the number 10 shirt with Roma's Youth. A year later, Volpato signed his first professional contract with Roma, a new three-year-deal tying him to the club until 2024. As the youth competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, he then became a regular with the under-18, scoring five goals during the 2020–21 season, soon earning a place in the under-19s squad. Roma Volpato made his professional debut for Roma on 4 December 2021, aged 18, in a Serie A match lost 3–0 against Inter Milan. On 19 February 2022, Volpato scored his first Serie A goal in a match drawn 2–2 against Hellas Verona. In the following season, after making his debut in the UEFA Europa League with Roma, he made his first league appearance on 31 October 2022, coming on as a substitute for Nicolò Zaniolo at the 57th minute of the match against Hellas Verona. In the occasion, he scored a goal and assisted Stephan El Shaarawy for another one, thus helping Roma obtain a 3–1 win.