The ambassador: Pavel Nedvěd

Clubs: AC Dukla Praha, AC Sparta Praha, SS Lazio, Juventus

UEFA honours
UEFA European Championship: runner-up 1996
UEFA Champions League: runner-up 2003 (suspended for final)
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: winner 1999
UEFA Cup: runner-up 1998
UEFA Super Cup: winner 1999
UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year: winner 2003
UEFA.com users' Team of the Year: winner 2003, 2004, 2005

• Born in the western Czech town of Cheb, close to the border with Germany, Nedvěd started his career with Dukla Praha before making his name as a versatile two-footed midfielder with Sparta.

• Impressed a global audience at EURO '96 in England, scoring his first international goal in a 2-1 win against Italy at Anfield and inspiring the Czech Republic to the final, where they lost to Oliver Bierhoff's golden goal for Germany.

• Left Sparta for Lazio that summer and became a big hit in Italy. He won the domestic cup and helped the Rome club to the UEFA Cup final in his second season, lifted the last UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (scoring the decisive goal in the final against RCD Mallorca) in his third campaign and claimed a Serie A/Coppa Italia double in his fourth.

• Transferred to Juventus in 2001, he would stay with the Turin outfit for the remainder of his career, hanging up his boots after eight seasons in which he landed two Serie A titles and helped the Old Lady to the 2003 UEFA Champions League final, only to be suspended for the decider against AC Milan. Despite his absence from the Old Trafford showpiece he received the Ballon d'Or award at the end of the year.

• Participated in his third UEFA European Championship in 2004, gracing the tournament in Portugal with several vintage displays as his side got to the semi-finals. He initially announced his national-team retirement that summer but returned to fulfil a dream by appearing at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where he departed the scene with 91 caps and 18 goals.

• Now a Juventus director, Nedved, who likes to run marathons in Prague, was voted by the public in 2013 as the best Czech league player of the last 20 years.