Lickley has been selected in a 16-player Northern New South Wales squad who has been invited to compete at the Tokyo under-14 International Youth Football Tournament which starts on May 2.

The Port Saints junior has been playing up a year since he first kicked a football at the tender age of four.

"I was just eager to play when I was younger," he said.

"When I was 10 I went into representative football and then kept on practising and getting better from there and now I'm making these teams."

He was looking forward to the opportunity of testing himself against some of the best under-14 players in the world.

"I think it's a great experience to be playing against better teams and better players," he said.

"Definitely it's a high level of football and I hope to test my skills so I can give myself goals and strive to be better than those players."

Lickley represented Northern NSW at the national titles last year in his other taste of representative football.

"This is another step - playing against higher teams," he said.

"I hope I can go all the way to the A-League and play for the Newcastle Jets because that's one of the greatest things I could possibly do."

The trip to Tokyo will be Lickley's first long-haul trip and he was excited about securing a passport and going through customs.

"It's all new to me, the most I've done is travel in the car," he said.

Selection in the squad is the reward for hard work after training five nights a week.

"I've been doing three nights training a week and two extra nights for fitness," he said.

"I was (travelling to Newcastle weekly) but now I'm doing a regional thing with North Coast to split up the travel.

"Definitely my eyes are on making the Jets squad. I need to keep on putting in the hard work to get there."

Northern NSW Football technical advisor Leo Bertos believed it will be a valuable opportunity for the players.

“The Tokyo international tournament will provide the players with the opportunity to test themselves against quality players and teams from many different environments from other parts of the world,” he said.

“Many of the participating teams will have different approaches to playing the game and we are sure that this experience alone will be of enormous benefit to our players."

Lickley and his family have created a GoFundMe account to raise the $2000 to make the trip to Tokyo.

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