Ruslan Rotan
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Age: 25
Position: Midfielder
Country: Ghana
Caps: 39
Goals: 10
Club: Fenerbahce
Previous clubs |  |
Monday, 15, May 2006 12:02
Age: 24
Position: Midfield
Country: Ukraine
Caps: 15
Goals: 3
Club: FC Dynamo Kyiv
Previous clubs: FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Estimated Chelsea-target value - £2,500,000 plus Jiri Jarosik.
Barring Diego Maradona's 1986 Argentina, there has perhaps never been a more clear cut example of a one-man World Cup team than this current Andriy Shevchenko-spearheaded Ukraine squad. However, with the Chelsea-bound striker struggling with injury, Ukrainian fans could be forced to find themselves a new recipient for their prayers in Germany this summer.
Step up Ruslan Rotan, a relatively unknown quantity in western Europe, but one of the genuine potential stars of this year's World Cup, providing Ukraine head coach Oleg Blokhin grants him sufficient licence to rove, something he will have to do if Shev is off the ball, or even off the pitch.
A creative and energetic midfield playmaker, superb at set-pieces, Rotan plies his trade at Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian Premier League, where he has just enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career, bagging five goals in 20 games, and winning cup and possible (still-to-be-decided) league honours.
Added to this, on the international stage, the 5ft 9in stand-in talisman has really impressed, suggesting he is certainly one capable of rising to the big game, which of course, rarely come much bigger than Ukraine's opening World Cup group stage match against Spain in Leipzig on June 14th.
Not forgetting, Ukraine would not even be at Germany this summer were it not for Rotan's unquestionable habit of scoring crucial goals at the right time, including the strike that sealed the team's place in qualifying - an emphatic volley from just inside the box against Georgia in his side's 1-1 draw in Tblisi in September last year.
The lad can shoot from distance too, having smashed in a 40-yard screamer during his country's final qualifying game against Albania in October, a talent he may well need to utilise more frequently in a month's time.
Odds of 200/1 suggest Rotan is unlikely to finish as the tournament's leading scorer, but a few back pages, particularly in Ukraine, could well be occupied by this diminutive potential World Cup giant this summer.
Ben Arnold.