He had come to the attention of Alex Ferguson and the rest of world football with some sparkling performances in Euro 96, capped with that audacious chipped goal in the quarter-final win over Portugal.

It was Poborsky who was brought down in the box for the penalty that briefly threatened to win the Czech Republic the final against Germany, before Oliver Bierhoff's two strikes.

It had been a great year for him, with his then club side Slavia Prague winning the Czech title and also reaching the last four of the Uefa Cup, and he was selected for the official Euro 96 Team of the Tournament.

Two unhappy years later, United sold him to Benfica - but he continued to struggle.

His lack of club form saw him miss out in the early qualifiers for Euro 2000 and he only found favour again at the start of 1999.

Poborsky then started the final seven games, scoring in the 3-0 win over Bosnia - his first goal since that strike against Portugal three years and 30 matches previously - and is expected to be an automatic first-team choice this summer.