New Zealand’s Libby Cacace in action against Republic of Ireland, 2023. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Young football star Liberato Cacace has taken another step in his career after being named as captain of the All Whites.
The 23-year-old fullback, who is now plying his trade in Italy for Empoli, will take the armband for their two games in the latest FIFA international window.
"It's an honour to captain your nation," Cacace said.
"It's a great feeling and I can't wait to lead the boys out there."
Cacace did take over the captaincy late in the game against Australia in London in 2023.
His first game in charge, as the named skipper, will be against Egypt in Cairo on Saturday morning and then against either Croatia or Tunisia next Wednesday
All Whites coach Darren Bazeley was forced into picking a new captain after injuries forced both Chris Wood and Joe Bell out of the fixtures.
Bazeley said Cacace is a leader in the group.
"He holds big mana and respect from the playing group, he's part of our kaitiaki, which is our leadership group, so he's perfect for this opportunity.
"Obviously losing Chris Woods and Joe Bell was a blow for us but now it's an opportunity for some other players to step up and for someone like Libby to continue his leadership development.
"He's the ultimate professional and performs well for us on a regular basis and so I was really proud to be able to say to Libby that he was going to lead his country."
Liberato Cacace of Empoli FC during the Serie A match against SSC Napoli, 2023. Photo: AFP
Bazeley would not name the rest of his team until just before kick off, but he was very happy with the depth of the squad he now had, saying he has two players that can fill every position.
"We're in a really good competitive stage where people now know that they have to perform.
"I know players like Libby (Cacace) are going to step up and keep driving the standards across the whole team."
The mini tournament was originally scheduled to be in the UAE but was shifted to Egypt a couple of weeks ago.
That did mean New Zealand was now likely to play in front of a near capacity crowd at the 90,000 seat Capital Stadium in Cairo.
Cacace said it was "going to be amazing".
"It'll be a great opportunity for us to play in front of a big crowd and it'll put a lot of pressure on some of the young boys which will be great and it'll be a great opportunity for people to step up.".
The former Wellington Phoenix player does have other ambitions this year including being a member of the OlyWhites in Paris.
He played at the Tokyo Olympics and would like to be considered for one of the three over-23 players for France.
"It's a great opportunity, the last Olympic Games was not the same obviously due to Covid, but I'd love to put my hand up to go to the Olympics again."
Egypt are ranked 36 in the world, 67 places higher than New Zealand.
Kick-off is 9am Saturday (NZ time).