Lucas Neill to fight to retain Socceroos captaincy

Australian footballer Lucas Neill will fight to retain the Socceroos' captaincy before the international friendly match against Costa Rica in Sydney Nov 19, media reported Friday.

There is speculation that Neill will be stripped of the Socceroos' captaincy and teammates Tim Cahill and Mark Bresciano are in line for the role, reported Xinhua.

Neill told reporters in Sydney Friday that the speculation has gone on a bit too long.

"But it's a big topic in our sport and I guess the one thing we can say is that football has made more headlines in the last couple of months than perhaps a couple of years ago," he said.

Ange Postecoglou, coach of Australia's national football team, the Socceroos, has said he will decide the captaincy the day before the game against Costa Rica.

Neill, who has led Australia 60 times, said he will fight to keep the leadership in the Socceroos.

"Any player who gets asked if they want to be the captain of Australia should answer 'it's a dream come true, it's an honour'," Neill said.

"But it's not a game. The captaincy is not something you can just hand around. It's not something that we should just try and vote for. You have got to earn it and somebody has got to give it to you."

The 35-year-old said his primary focus was keeping his spot in the team.

"Obviously we all want to go to the World Cup and the manager will decide on his leader when he feels he has picked his team, and from that time I'm sure he will pick his leader," he said.

"My dream, like everybody else's, is to be in that last 23 that goes to (next year's World Cup in) Brazil," he said.