ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO - UKRAINE

Date of birth: Sept. 29, 1976
Birthplace: Yagotyn, Ukraine
Club: AC Milan (Italy)
Position: Forward
International debut: March 1995 vs. Croatia

All eyes will be on Ukrainian star Andriy Shevchenko when he makes his World Cup debut in Germany.

Alongside France's Thierry Henry, Shevchenko is regarded as the world's best striker — the AC Milan star tears defences apart with his well-timed runs and cool finishing touch, and is one of the most dangerous and explosive goal scorers in soccer today.

Shevchenko is Ukraine's all-time leading scorer with 28 goals in 63 games, but many thought the 29-year-old striker would never have the opportunity to play in a World Cup.

Thankfully, Ukraine finally qualified for the 2006 World Cup after several previous failed attempts, and the world will now get a chance to watch one of the game's elite players shine on soccer's greatest stage.

Shevchenko was discovered by a scout for Dynamo Kyiv, the top club in Ukraine, and played in the team' s youth setup before making his debut for the senior side in 1994.

Under the guidance of legendary coach Valeri Lobanovsky, Shevchenko blossomed into a goal-scoring machine (he scored more than 55 goals for Dynamo) and one of the most exciting young players in the game. During his five seasons with Dynamo from 1994-99, he led the club to five league titles and three Ukrainian Cups (1996, 1998 and 1999).

Shevchenko also finished as the Ukrainian league's top scorer in 1999 with 18 goals. That same season he guided Dynamo to the semifinals of the Champions League against Bayern Munich and finished as the tournament's top scorer with 10 goals.

The Ukrainian bullet, who first earned acclaim across Europe during the 1997-98 Champions League season when he scored a first-half hat trick against FC Barcelona in Spain and suddenly found himself the hottest property in soccer.

It was clear that the modest Ukrainian league could no longer contain his enormous talents and AC Milan broke the bank before the 1999-2000 season when it paid Dynamo $26 million US to bring Shevchenko to Serie A.

Shevchenko became an instant super star in Italy, scoring 24 goals to become the first foreigner to win the league scoring title in his first season in Serie A. He followed that up with two successful seasons in which he scored 38 goals, but Milan failed to win any silverware.

That changed in 2002-03. Although Shevchenko missed most of the season through injury, he ended up scoring the winning goal in a penalty shootout against Juventus in the Champions League final, giving AC Milan its sixth European crown. Milan also won the Italian Cup that season.

The following campaign brought more success for Shevchenko. He scored 24 goals to finish as Serie A's top scorer and collected another Italian league championship. A fantastic 2004 was capped off when he was named the European player of the year.

Heartbreak came in 2004-05 when AC Milan squandered a 3-0 lead and lost to Liverpool in a penalty shootout in the finals of the Champions League. But failure at club level was tempered by national success: Ukraine qualified for its first-ever World Cup, with Shevchenko scoring six of his country's 18 goals in the qualifying round.

This past season Shevchenko, a four time Ukrainian player of the year, made history when he scored four goals against Turkish side Fenerbahçe in the Champions League, becoming only the fifth player after Marco van Basten, Simone Inzaghi, Dado Prso and Ruud van Nistelrooy to do so.

He also netted his 51st career goal in the Champions League against Olympique Lyon in the quarter-finals, tying Spanish striker Raul as the tournament's all-time leading scorer.

Unfortunately, Milan bowed out in the semifinals and had to watch Juventus win a second consecutive Italian league title. At the end of the season, Shevchenko intimated that his Italian sojourn might soon come to an end as he was looking to join London super club Chelsea.

First, though, he has some rather important business to attend to in Germany.