Socceroos young gun and Perth product Alessandro Circati grateful after becoming youngest captain in 44 years

New Socceroos captain Alessandro Circati has expressed his gratitude over becoming the youngest national team skipper in more than 40 years after helping his side to a 3-1 victory over New Zealand. The rising centre-back became the third West Australian (after Gary Marocchi and Trent Sainsbury) to captain the Socceroos in a full ‘A’ international during his side’s Soccer Ashes-sealing win on Tuesday night. In the absence of seasoned veteran Mat Ryan, it was a bold statement of respect from coach Tony Popovic to hand the Parma SC defender the armband in just his second national team camp under him. In just his seventh game, Circati became the fourth-youngest player to captain the Socceroos and the youngest since Peter Raskopoulos skippered the side twice in 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 and the boys as well most importantly.” On a night when Mo Toure scored twice to stake his claim for the Socceroos’ main striker role and wunderkind Nestory Irankunda once again turned heads, Circati delivered a typically assured performance on the right side of Popovic’s three-man defence. The Perth SC and Perth Glory product has taken to Popovic’s system like a duck to water, and it’s easy to forget it was just Circati’s third appearance under the Australian boss. Circati said the most promising takeaway from the two-game camp and back-to-back wins over the Kiwis was the evolution of the team. “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 two games against USA and Canada — two-thirds of the co-hosts for next year’s World Cup — set for October, 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. “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.”