Position: Midfielder
Born: 30.08.72
Club: Juventus

Pavel Nedved has been the inspiration for the Czech Republic for many years and his country will hope that his return from international exile will help them to World Cup glory.

The energetic midfielder had orginially retired from national duty after the Czech's tragic semi-final defeat to Greece in Euro 2004. But after his country could only scramble to second place in their qualifying group behind Holland, Nedved felt his side needed his influence to help defeat Norway in their World Cup play-off.

Nedved appears to play each game as if it's his last and his urgent and tenacious performances for both the Czechs and his club Juventus make him one of the world's top class talents.

Despite his slight 5ft9in body, his tremendous workrate and determination enables him to impose himself on any game, even in Serie A. Nedved's combination of great skills, nippy pace, range of passes and thunderous yet accurate shooting make him a potent force for any opposition to contend with.

Although Nedved won three consecutive league titles with Sparta Prague between 1992 to 1995 it was at Euro 96 where he came to prominence and was instrumental in his country's run to the final where they missed out to Germany at Wembley. After the tournament, he secured a move to Lazio and the Italians won the Coppa Italia in 1998, the 1999 Cup Winners' Cup and the Scudetto in 2000.

But in 2001 Juventus, who had just sold Zinedine Zidane, paid 41.2 Million Euro for Nedved's services. As the engine room in the side, the Turin giants won the league title in his first season before successfully retaining it in 2002/03. In the same year Juve reached the Champions League final with the Czech wizard scoring five goals along the way but this was a game he missed through suspension and his side lost to AC Milan at Old Trafford.

This however was his most successful season and was awarded UEFA's Golden Ball as the top European footballer. He has since won his fourth Serie A championship with the Bianconeri in 2005 but will want his farewell to international football to be a spectacular one.

• 16 Jaromir Blazek
• 1 Petr Cech
• 4 Tomas Galasek
• 2 Zdenek Grygera
• 18 Marek Heinz
• 6 Marek Jankulovski
• Jiri Jarosik
• 11 Pavel Nedved
• 20 Jaroslav Plasil
• 8 Karel Poborsky