Currently with Lazio, for whom he scored the winner in last season's Cup Winners' Cup final, he creates and scores goals in equal measure.

Although his Euro 2000 campaign began with a red card in the win over the Faroe Islands, Nedved scored three times in the next seven games he played, taking his side to that extraordinary 100% qualifying record.

Czech Footballer of the Year in 1999, he has also won three Czech league titles while with Sparta Prague.

Serie A watchers say his form in 2000 has not been as good as last year but it was still good enough to help Lazio clinch the Scudetto ahead of Juventus.

He may feel he has a point to prove to deflect his critics.