Sydney FC want to extend the contract of Brandon O’Neill but the central midfielder has aspirations to play abroad.
O’Neill scored one of the goals of the A-League season with a 25-metre pile driver on Saturday to give an unconvincing Sydney a hard-earned 2-1 away win over Central Coast in Gosford.
That’s likely to stimulate even more interest in the 24-year-old who is off contract at the end of the season and is already believed to be on the radar of some overseas clubs.
“I think it [the A-league] compares to a lot of European leagues and a lot of Asian leagues,” O’Neill said.
“But it’s always been a dream of mine to play at the highest level possible and whether that is in the European league, or whatever, I’m driven and I’m determined to make that a reality.
“I do want to play overseas and that’s just normal for any young lad that’s played and who’s trained in his national league and is wanting a fresh and new challenge.
“I’m the sort of guy that is never happy being happy, I want to be tested, I want to be challenged because that brings out the best in me.”
Sydney coach Steve Corica recognised O’Neill wanted to go overseas at some stage.
“We want to extend his contact, he’s a quality player and they are players we want to keep at the club,” Corica said.
O’Neill said it had been important to beat the Mariners, for Sydney’s first win in three games, and hoped it would be a springboard for a good run of form after some patchy performances.
“The 100 percent main thing was bouncing back and we’ve done that twice now,” O’Neill said.
“After the [FFA] Cup final we beat Melbourne City and after a loss [last week] we come out here and beat the Mariners away.”
O’Neill wasn’t happy with his overall performance but rated Saturday’s strike the best of his six A-League goals because it came from his weaker foot.
“It’s been in my mind for the last couple of weeks, I need to add goals to my game, I need to be further up the pitch,” O’Neill said.
Tagged with: betting news • football • footballnews • sport betting
