EURO 2008 INFO

The possibility of seeing Czech star midfielder Pavel Nedvěd wearing his country's colours again has come to the fore, fuelled by uncertainty over the fitness of current team captain Tomáš Rosický. Rosický looks doubtful to appear this summer due to a knee injury which has now plagued him for months. This leaves the national side lacking a key playmaker as well as natural leader. As Euro 2008 approaches, the question of whether Pavel Nedvěd could be called up to fill the position has become more and more pressing. Marek Bílek writes for the Czech daily "Sport":

"It could be that Rosický will not be there at the European Championships, the chances are getting slimmer and slimmer that he will start. Nobody knows exactly what injury he has, but he has missed more than two months already, a long break, and the chances of playing are therefore getting smaller. The logical step would be a call from Karel Brückner to Pavel Nedvěd, and as such the chances of Nedvěd playing are increasing all the time with Rosický's continued absence."

Pavel Nedvěd has long been a leading and hugely respected figure in European football: in 2003 he won the Ballon d'Or for European Player of the Year, and represented his country consistently up until 2004. He retired for the first time following the Czech Republic's highly-praised bronze finish at Euro 2004, only to come out of retirement to give the national side a crucial boost in the World Cup two years later. Even now, he continues to compete at the highest level for Juventus in Italy's prestige football division Serie A. Sports writer Marek Bílek again:

"He is a big fighter and he can show other players how to beat an opponent, and everybody who sees how much he wants to win can follow his example - that's his greatest attribute. It was seen at the last World Cup in 2006 in Germany, even though he missed the whole qualification. He went to the World Cup and he was the Czech Republic's best player as well as being absolutely the best prepared for the tournament."