Player profile

Switzerland’s captain and record goal-scorer has lost none of his sharpness despite the injury problems that continue to plague him.

Frei broke an arm in a league match in February but returned for Basel’s penultimate fixture on 13 May and scored twice within 20 minutes of his comeback as a substitute.

A good friend of Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, Frei scored 61 goals in 159 games in the Swiss league between 1997 and 2003 to earn a move to French club Rennes. He scored 48 goals in 100 French league games, and continued to average nearly a goal every two games in three seasons at Borussia Dortmund.

He rejoined Basel, where he had spent three years as a teenager, last summer for £3.5m and scored 15 league goals in 17 starts to help them reclaim the title with a last-day victory at championship rivals Young Boys. It also completed the domestic double, having already won the cup.

Frei became Switzerland’s all-time top scorer a week before Euro 2008, but he only lasted 45 minutes of the tournament in his home country before he was substituted in tears after suffering knee ligament damage in a tackle.

He had not long returned from a nine-month lay-off following surgery on his hip and calf. He finished Euro 2004 in disgrace, after being banned for three games for spitting at England’s Steven Gerrard.

Frei was branded a llama by the Swiss press – by way of apology he adopted two llamas at Basel zoo.