David Trezeguet is a classic old school striker. Deadly inside the penalty box - in the air and with both feet. Trezeguet is an instinctive finisher that has perfected the art of spending 89 minutes looking disinterested and harmless, before popping up scoring the winner in injury time.

He has scored more goals for France than any player currently in service and has over 100 goals for his club side Juventus, boasting an efficiency rate comfortably superior to a goal every two games.

Trezeguet has football in his blood. Born in Rouen in 1977 where his Argentine father Jorge was a professional player, Trezeguet quit France at the age of two and grew up in the South America's football hotbed Buenos Aires.

As a teenager Trezeguet was signed by Platense and made his first division debut at just 16 years of age. In 1995 he decided to try his luck back in France and following an initial knock back by Paris Saint-Germain was quickly snapped up by the Monaco youth academy who already counted Thierry Henry among their young hopefuls.

The talented pair would lift the Under-20 European Championships a year later and in 1997 Trezeguet won the first of two Ligue 1 crowns with the principality outfit.

1998 was a great year for French football and a great year for the 20-year-old Trezeguet. He scored 18 goals in 21 starts for Monaco, an incredible strike rate which earned him an unlikely call-up to France’s World Cup squad. Despite only starting one game in France ’98, Trezeguet scored two goals and belied his age by coolly slotting home in the penalty shootout against Italy.

Pipped by Sonny Anderson to the Ligue 1 golden boot in 2000, Trezeguet still scored an impressive 26 goals in all competitions as Monaco won the League and he earned himself a place in Roger Lemerre’s Euro 2000 squad.

Still not first choice in the national team, Trezeguet would nonetheless write himself into annals of French footballing history for a second time when he slammed home the golden goal winner in the final against Italy.

The lanky striker’s efforts certainly didn’t go unnoticed in Italy and traditional giants Juventus won the race to his signature.

In his second season in Serie A, Trezegol confirmed his rising status with a League topping 24 goals as Juve lifted the Scudetto.

France would return from the 2002 World Cup with their tails between their legs, failing to score a single goal as they bowed out at the first hurdle, but Trezeguet eased the pain with a second consecutive Serie A crown with La Vecchia Donna.

If there is still a question mark over the Franco-Argentine goal-machine, it remains his slight frame and his proneness to injury.

Trezeguet has played considerable fewer games for France than his contemporaries Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord and Patrick Vieira despite bursting onto the scene at the same time and the 2001-02 season is the only time he has played more than 30 League games in a season.

However, by his own standards 2004-05 was a difficult year for his physicians. A chronic shoulder injury would require surgery and Trezeguet missed over three months of competition. He returned to score nine crucial goals in 18 League games, four goals in five Champions’ League games as Juventus won the Scudetto as well as two goals in three games for Les Bleus.