It was family, not cash, that lured me to Sydney: Neill Socceroos captain Lucas Neill pictured at his first training session for Sydney FC at North Ryde. Picture: Nic Gibson Source: News Limited SOCCEROOS captain Lucas Neill is adamant the chance to play in front of his family, in the city where he was born and raised and not money was the motivation behind his last-minute decision to spurn Melbourne Heart and sign with Sydney FC for the rest of the A-League season. Neill trained with his teammates for the first time yesterday as some bitterness and recriminations emerged from the Heart camp over his about-face in joining the Sky Blues for the last six games - plus the playoffs, if they make it. Heart officials felt they had their man three days ago after holding discussions with his management team, only to see Sydney come in and steal him from under their noses. While Neill, who was at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night to see his new club beat Adelaide 2-1, defended what appears to be a late change of heart, he nonetheless felt compelled to apologise to the Victorian club. "To the Melbourne Heart board and (coach) John Aloisi and (assistant coach) Hayden (Foxe), I apologise if I gave too much of an indication I was heading down to Melbourne and I wish them all the best," Neill said. I want to clear the air a little bit about the situation. I did give an indication I would be excited by the opportunity to go to Melbourne. (But) there was never a case of leveraging one club against the other. When the opportunity became very real to join Sydney ... it was a difficult decision, but an easy one from a family point of view, being born and raised in Sydney. As far as being gazumped at the last minute, there was never a question of money. My intention with my Inspire (management) representatives is to come here for football reasons. We made that very clear, that this wasn't financial. I think it is well documented Melbourne's offer was for $100,000 and I've signed for $70,000, so I think we will leave it at that. Whether Heart will allow it to rest so easily will be put to the test soon enough. In a remarkable twist, Neill will make his debut for the Sky Blues when the two clubs meet at AAMI Park on Sunday. The Victorians accused Neill of reneging on a promise to join them and Heart chief executive Scott Munn gave a good indication of the sort of reception the defender can expect. "We're disappointed because we received some really positive messages from the player himself," Munn told Melbourne media after learning of the decision. Sydney coach Frank Farina confirmed he had sounded out Neill about the possibility of joining the club. "I spoke with Lucas two or three weeks ago while he was still in the Middle East because I heard there was a chance he was looking to come back to Australia," Farina said. This was not something that happened overnight. Lucas came back to me and said money was not the issue and he wanted to be playing football. When you have the national team captain in your city and from your city, it is a no-brainer that we were going to try and get him. Neill, who said his parting with UAE club Al Wasl was amicable, believes he brings hunger and desire to Sydney, and says he is very close to peak fitness. Already having one training session with the guys, it feels good. Hopefully I can add more belief and confidence," Neill, 35 next month, said. I'm not here to make up the numbers and I want to push to get Sydney up into the playoffs. From there anything is possible. As for my fitness, that won't be a problem. I played five competitive games in January so I am very, very close to being fully match fit.