Position: Forward
Born: 28.04.73
Club: Paris St Germain

Pauleta is now well established in the Portugal team, but he had to wait a long time to get his chance.

Having never played for one of Portugal's big three, he found his chances limited early in his career, especially as he never attended the football academy that produced the 'Golden Generation' of Luis Figo and Co.

As a succession of coaches tried to turn the likes of Nuno Gomes into out-and-out goalscorers, Pauleta continued to score a hatful of goals, and eventually got his chance in 2000 at the age of 27. He came into the side for the World Cup 2002 qualifiers and the defining moment of the campaign was the 2-0 win over Holland that saw Portugal through as the expense of the Dutch.

Pauleta scored one and made the other that night and has never looked back - Portugal had stumbled across the 'fox in the box' they had sorely lacked throughout the 1990s.

He was the top scorer in European qualification for the World Cup in Germany with 11 goals, a haul that also took him past the legendary Eusebio's total of 41 goals for his country at a ratio of better than one every other game.