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Santa Clara: It’s impossible to prepare for the feeling of carrying a nation’s hopes into a World Cup.
But carrying the hopes of a football-mad Italian city, where relegation threatens livelihoods, business and civic pride? Every single week?
That has to be good practice.
So when Alessandro Circati says he feels no extra burden playing for the Socceroos at a World Cup, it’s not bravado. Having just played a huge role in helping Parma avoid the drop in Italy’s Serie A, responsibility has become his comfort zone.
Now he craves the feeling.
“Staying in Serie A means so much to the city, so much to the people,” Circati says.
“They do let you know. They do make you aware that if you do get relegated, it’s sort of a big, big upset, and maybe people are losing money from it, you know? Cafes are losing money. Restaurants are losing money. Tourist attractions are losing money. You’ve got a lot of weight on your shoulders.
“It’s no issue for me. I like to carry that weight. I decided to do this job for a reason – and I’m willing to do it for Australia, as well.”
It’s not for no reason that Circati, 22, is widely considered the next long-term captain of the Socceroos, when Maty Ryan decides to pass the torch. He has already skippered the team in friendlies and this season – his first full one in Serie A – also wore the armband for Parma for the first time.
As with how he found out he would be skippering Australia, the honour came without any warning.
“Exactly the same as a Socceroos game: it’s just in a team meeting, they put up the team sheet on the projector, and my name’s got a C next to it, without anything being said. That’s it,” Circati said.
For Circati, there is an extra layer of meaning in playing for Parma, another reason he feels such a deep sense of duty.
He was born in Fidenza, two train stops to the west of Parma, in Italy’s Emilio-Romagna region. His father, Gianfranco, was also a footballer who came through the Parma academy – but he never managed to play a senior game for them.
Before Alessandro was born, his old man briefly lived in Australia, taking up an offer to play in the old National Soccer League for Perth Glory for a season. He loved it so much that, once he retired, the Circati family moved back there for good. Alessandro was only a year old, and though he has since returned to Italy, his parents happily remain in Perth.
It looks like destiny in retrospect, but Circati’s path back to Parma was a happy accident. As a junior, his talent and enthusiasm for the game was obvious. Such is to be expected for the child of a professional, though Alessandro took it to another level.
“From the morning to nighttime, when he was four, five, six years old, always: in the garage, inside the house, in the living area, he was kicking the ball all the time. He was just a maniac,” said Gianfranco. “The funny part ... six, seven years old, he was waking up quite early in the morning, going on the living area, turning the TV on and watching games. Myself, I watch games, but one game is enough. He watched game after game after game.”
Named Perth Glory’s most outstanding youth talent in 2020, Circati went on trial with several European clubs when he was 17. One of them, Leicester City, wanted to sign him, but couldn’t complete a deal due to complications with the timing of Brexit and the day that the transfer window was due to open.
Circati was devastated – but because of the pandemic, he couldn’t immediately return to Perth, so he stayed with his grandparents in Italy.
As he awaited the next available flight back home, Circati asked his dad if he knew anyone in the area who might be able to help him continue training. Through a friend, Gianfranco got in contact with the director of Parma’s youth set-up, who welcomed him in. Until then, despite the family connection to the club, he was not on their radar.
“After the fourth or the fifth training [session],” said Gianfranco, “they called me and said, ‘We would like to keep this boy. Can we sign him?’”
From there, Circati’s rise has been almost impossibly rapid.
He helped Parma climb out of Serie B and reclaim their rightful place back in Italy’s top division, forced his way into the Socceroos side and became an indispensable player under Tony Popovic, and returned from an ACL injury months ahead of schedule just in time to help them qualify for this World Cup.
He also had to pick which country he wanted to play for, having represented Italy at junior level. In fact, it was an Azzurri legend who gave Circati the advice that led to his decision: Gianluigi Buffon, his former teammate at Parma and a member of the 2006 World Cup-winning side, told him to simply follow his heart.
Circati is continuing a strong tradition of Australian excellence at Parma. Socceroos greats Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano both played there together in the mid-2000s and, knowing how it feels to walk in his shoes, Grella rates what Circati is doing at his age as a “12 out of 10” in difficulty. He also cannot speak more highly of the way he is doing it.
“The humbleness behind this player is something that, for me, stands out,” Grella said.
“What the boy is doing is unbelievable. You don’t get the captain’s armband because you’re good-looking. You get it because you earn it, and the club and the players, your teammates, recognise certain leadership qualities that you have that somebody else doesn’t have – otherwise they’d give it to that person.
“Unfortunately, Serie A is not the Premier League, and Serie A is not what Serie A was before, and that’s nobody’s fault. It is what it is. But he should get the recognition that he deserves because of the way he’s doing it and the way he is as a young man.”
How much longer Circati stays at Parma remains to be seen. His form and reliability has been noticed, and a move to a bigger club, in Italy or elsewhere, feels inevitable. He is reportedly the subject of transfer interest from Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid and Newcastle United.
Wherever he goes, Circati is likely to net Parma a significant fee – a fitting way, he reckons, to pay back the club that took a punt on him.
“If I was to leave – whenever that happens, if that happens – obviously I’d like the club to have something in return, for all that they did,” he says.
“But right now, it’s not something that I’m thinking about. The world moves super fast, especially in football. One day maybe everyone wants you, the next day no one wants you – so I’m living really, really in the moment.”
Circati’s mind is on his next challenge: Paraguay. A win or draw for Australia on Friday (12pm AEST) in Santa Clara will lock up second spot in Group D and a berth in the World Cup’s round of 32. He is one of three defenders at risk of suspension should he collect another yellow card.
