New Socceroos captain Alessandro Circati has expressed his gratitude over becoming the youngest national team captain in more than 40 years after helping his side to victory over New Zealand. The rising centre-back is the fourth West Australian to captain the Socceroos – after Ron Adair, Gary Marocchi and Trent Sainsbury – during the team’s 3-1 win in Auckland last night.

In the absence of regular leaders Mat Ryan and Jackson Irvine, coach Tony Popovic issued a bold statement by handing Circati, aged 21 years and 335 days, the armband. In just his seventh international appearance, the Parma defender became the fourth-youngest player to captain the Socceroos and the youngest since 19-year old Peter Raskopoulos led Australia against Taiwan in September 1981.

“It was a great honor. I know it doesn’t happen to everyone,” Circati said post-game. “It’s a big privilege of mine, and being 21 years-old, I’d like to think it reflects all the hard work which I’ve done off the field and on the field in the past years. I’m ever so grateful, but I say thanks to the boss and the boys as well most importantly.”

Mo Toure scored twice for Australia with Nestory Irankunda grabbing the remainder as Circati delivered an assured performance on the right side of Popovic’s three-man defence. The win secured the Soccer Ashes for Australia, who downed New Zealand 1-0 in the first game of the friendly series last Thursday in Canberra.

Circati was pleased with the Socceroos evolution across the two games. “In the first half, we were playing very well. We decided, maybe we take an extra risk, make the extra pass forward, try to get in behind and break them down,” he said. “We were very clinical; with the few chances we had, they were all either very dangerous or finished in the back of the net.”

With games against 2026 World Cup co-hosts the United States of America and Canada set down for next month, Circati said he was hopeful of further growing in comfort. “It’s still very fresh, things are still very new to me. With all the games we’ve played, we’re conceding minimal, we’re scoring quite a few,” he said.

“That’s the most important thing, the results, and we’re getting exactly that. So we’ll continue what we’re doing. It was my second camp with the new staff, just learning how things roll, how things are liked, learning to play with the boys because we don’t get these games very often, so when we do we really have to capitalise.”