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Very girly hair
Although his disgracefully crap hair has always put me off watching him, Pavel Nedvěd has been one hell of a player and will be missed when he retires at the end of this season. Nedvěd got his international breakthrough when he was part of the Czech national team which went to the final of Euro 96, with Nedvěd’s performance not going unnoticed. Despite having a verbal agreement with PSV, Nedvěd reneged, deciding to move from Sparta Prague to Lazio in 1996.
While at Lazio, Nedvěd won the Coppa Italia in 1998, and the last ever Cup Winners’ Cup tournament in 1999 against Real Mallorca, where he scored the tournament’s last ever goal in a 2-1 win for Lazio. Nedvěd eventually moved to Juventus in 2001 for a fee of – I’m not joking – €41 million as the replacement for slaphead Zinédine Zidane. Although this was asking some of the lad, he proved to be one of the few midfielders capable of assuming the playmaking role of his predecessor. Nedved played frequently in Juventus‘ scudetto-winning teams of 2001/02, 2002/03, 2004/05* and 2005/06*, also leading Juventus into the 2003 Champions League final against Milan, but forced to miss the final because of yellow cards after being booked in the semifinal for tackling Real Madrid legend Steve McManaman. Never mind, eh, at the end of the year he won the European Footballer of the Year award.
The future of Pavel Nedvěd as a Juventus player was heavily discussed following Juventus’s relegation from Serie A because of the Calciopoli scandal, but he dispelled those rumors by vowing to return to Juventus in order to return the club to Serie A. Nedvěd and Juventus won the Serie B title, securing promotion to Serie A. During the 2007/08 season, Nedvěd played frequently as Juve’s first choice left winger. Nedvěd had a fair season during Juve’s return, but only scored twice. Before the start of this season he was linked with a move to Japan, but the rumours were quickly scotched when Pavel committed his future to Juventus for another year after signing a new one year contract extension which will expire in June 2009, when he plans to call it a day and focus full time on his hair. On 10th March, Nedvěd was subbed due to injury in the first half of the UEFA Champions League 2nd round game against Chelsea, which turned out to be his last European game for Juventus who lost 3-2 on aggregate. He still has one or two belters left in him though, although if this one from last weekend turns out to be his last, make sure you enjoy it.
