Alex Chidiac said that she was in “shock” when she received the phone call from CommBank Matildas Head Coach Joe Montemurro that she was in the 26-player squad for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026™.
Chidiac received the call on the back of her fantastic form with Como in the Serie A Femminile in Italy. Her last call-up was in July last year.
“You can see in the video that my eyebrows are just like, going all over the place,” she laughed, referring to the video of the phone call between her and Montemurro when she received the news.
“I'm just in shock. So, yeah, I did not expect that.”
Chidiac was part of the squad that competed in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, so she knows what it is like to carry the weight of home expectations and play in front of huge crowds.
She said that it’s an honour to be a part of another major tournament on home soil.
“You want to be at these tournaments, and you want to keep building women's football in Australia,” she said.
“So being part of that, honestly, is an honour. I'm so excited to see the hype continue in Australian women's football.”
Chidiac took her time to establish herself in the Como squad after struggling with injury and acclimatising to a new football country when she signed in the middle of 2025.
Once she grew into her game, however, she hasn’t looked back. She has started the last few league games for the club and has scored twice in that time.
“I've just been - quietly in the background - working on a lot of things here at Como,” she explained.
“There are no distractions. I've really been honing in on my football, and that's why this was so unexpected. I was so focused on trying to prove myself in the team and to get more minutes. That started to come, and then I started to get more comfortable in the position that I was playing in, and at training, just improving each and every day.
“It feels nice to get this reward at the end of the day, and hopefully continue bringing that [form] into camp.”
She said that the chance to bring home a trophy is what excites her the most about the tournament.
“The opportunity to go and try and win a tournament like this [is exciting],” she said.
“We didn't quite make that step with the World Cup, but I think with the Asian Cup, we want to bring it home.”
Chidiac’s career has been full of ups and downs since debuting as a sixteen-year-old wonderkid in 2015. She’s always had immense talent and has accumulated 37 senior appearances over the last decade, but has been in and out of the side due to injuries and form. Now, she is set to appear in her second AFC Women’s Asian Cup™.
What would she say to her younger self at the end of it all?
“You're stronger than you think,” she reflected. “That’s probably the story of my career.”
AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™
CommBank Matildas v Philippines
Date: Sunday, 1 March 2026
Venue: Perth Stadium, Perth
Time: 5:00pm AWST/8:00pm AEDT
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IR Iran v CommBank Matildas
Date: Thursday, 5 March 2026
Venue: Gold Coast Stadium, Gold Coast
Time: 7:00pm AEST/8:00pm AEDT
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CommBank Matildas v Korea Republic
Date: Sunday, 8 March 2026
Venue: Stadium Australia, Sydney
Time: 8:00pm AEDT
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