Player profile

The muscular 35-year-old will finally compete in his first major international tournament, having missed Euro 2008 with a groin injury a year after returning from a self-imposed exile that caused him to miss Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup.

Nkufo’s absence from the Swiss squad spanned five years following a disagreement with coach Kobi Kuhn, who he felt was overlooking him unjustly.

Although Kuhn eventually brought Nkufo back into the fold, his most consistent form has come under current boss Ottmar Hitzfeld. Nkufo played more minutes than any other Swiss player in the World Cup qualifiers, and his five goals included the group-defining winner in Greece.

Nkufo ended his seven-year stay at FC Twente in May by captaining the club to its first Dutch league title.

Early in the season he became Twente’s all-time top league scorer and finished with 114 goals in 223 top-flight games. He will join MLS side Seattle Sounders after the World Cup so that he can be with his Vancouver-based wife and two children.

Born in Kinshasa in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nkufo was seven when he and his family fled from the country’s unrest to Switzerland. He had a nomadic first decade as a footballer, playing for nine different clubs in Switzerland, Qatar and Germany.