Nicolas Anelka believes John Terry is the right man to captain England, despite being overlooked in favour of Rio Ferdinand for the match against France tonight.

The Chelsea striker is expected to line up against his club colleague in Paris this evening and he admits he anticipates a tough game against a player he sees as a natural leader on the pitch.

"I would have John as captain of England if I was England manager, that's for sure," he said. "Sometimes it's harder to be captain of Chelsea than it is of England. So if he can captain Chelsea, he can certainly do it for England.

"I think he is world class. When you play for Chelsea you have to be world class. He's a captain, he's playing all the top games for us in the Premier League and the Champions League and he's a top player."

Terry, who was captain under Steve McClaren, missed Fabio Capello's first match as national boss, when Liverpool's Steven Gerrard led the side.

The Italian has already revealed he would rotate the captaincy before deciding on a permanent skipper but Terry had been expected to get the nod for tonight's game.

The 27-year-old was in the news last week when he led protests against referee Mike Riley's booking of Ashley Cole for a bad tackle on Tottenham's Alan Hutton, and Capello has since implied that anyone hoping to be named as England captain must maintain excellent standards of behaviour and act as a good role model.