After the sudden retirement of Sydney FC defender Tony Popovic, Steve Corica has been given the captain’s armband for the remainder of the Hyundai A-League season.
Corica was a logical choice to replace the former Socceroo and he believes he is up to the challenge.
“It is an honour to be captain of Sydney,” said Corica. “Tony did a fantastic job for the club and Australia and it-s obviously a privilege to take over the captaincy role from him.”
It’s not the first time the 35-year-old has captained the club, with the midfielder stepping up during Popovic’s injury-enforced layoffs this season, but no-one was more surprised than Corica himself when he was given the job permanently.
“With Tony having another year left on his contract, I definitely didn’t expect it now,” Corica said. “It’s nice though and a great privilege to lead one of the nation’s biggest football clubs.”
“I always try to lead by example and do my best on the field, giving it one hundred per cent all of the time and I am sure all the boys will try to do the same.”
“We have had some good results and a couple of bad results. If we want to challenge for the title we can-t lose too many more games, especially those against the bottom teams.”
Corica and his men will have a rest this weekend due to the FIFA international break, and his first chance to officially lead the Sky Blues will come against Adelaide next Saturday in Adelaide.
“After the boy’s were given a big shock from Poppa’s retirement we’ve had a good week in training. We are now fully focused on one thing, and that is winning next week.”
