Popovic skippered Crystal Palace in the English Premier League during his five seasons with the London team.

While acknowledging the wonderful job performed by Rudan in Sydney FC's first two years, Branko Culina believes that Popovic, who was skipper of the Sydney United side he coached more than a decade ago, is the ideal person to lead the team in the coming season.

"Mark has done splendidly over the past two seasons and will remain an important member of Sydney FC's leadership group," said Culina.

"But Tony's arrival heralds a new era for the club. He's been a terrific leader ever since he captained Sydney United at the age of just 21."

Popovic, who won 58 caps for Australia over 12 years, says that he is honoured to be Sydney FC's skipper.

"It's a privilege to be named captain of Sydney FC," he said.

"The club has been lucky to have such a superb leader in Mark for the first two A-League campaigns and I'm looking forward to working with him and the club's other senior players in the leadership group."