The Stars

STILIAN PETROVNobody will ever take the electrifying striker Hristo Stoitchkov’s place in the heart of Bulgarian football fans, but Cel...

STILIAN PETROV

Nobody will ever take the electrifying striker Hristo Stoitchkov’s place in the heart of Bulgarian football fans, but Celtic’s Stilian Petrov has a good shot at securing one of his own at the upcoming Euro 2004. The offensive midfielder has had his sights on Portugal only since he scored to secure the Scottish title for Celtic early in mid-April. ‘‘We want Bulgarians to smile again,’’ he said in a recent interview. He was voted Bulgaria’s footballer of the year in 2003 and was on the shortlist of four for the same title for 2003/2004 in Scotland.

ALEXANDER FREI

If Switzerland are to emerge from a tough looking Group B that features Euro 2004 favourites France, as well as England and Croatia, the man seen as their likely source of goals is the highly rated striker Alexander Frei. He made his international debut in March 2001 after shining with Servette Geneva and had racked up an impressive strike rate of 15 goals in 25 national matches by the end of April 2004. At 24-years-old, he has hit top form this season after joining French first division side Rennes and caused a sensation in March when he scored four goals against Marseille in a league match, the first time since Djibril Cisse in 2001 that a player had achieved that feat in France.

NIKOLAIDIS

Greek star Themistoklis ‘Demis’ Nikolaidis is determined to not ‘‘play second fiddle’’ when his team appears in the 2004 European Championships in Portugal. ‘‘We set a target which was qualification. Now we know the reason we are going to Portugal and we have to make an impact,’’ says Nikolaidis.The 31-year-old striker, dubbed by fans as the ‘Greek-Beckham’, first started his career after being spotted by the Apollon, Alexandroupoli club in 1996 and later by AEK Athens and then Atletico Madrid.