Euro 2008 Swansong: Jan Koller

At 2.02 (6′7), he’s rather unmistakable on the pitch. But perhaps going under the radar is that Jan Koller’s final game in football will be the last game the Czech’s participate in at Swissaustria, be it group stages, knockouts or in the final, win or lose. Jan announced early in this season that he’d be hanging his boots up after the Euros during the Bundesliga campaign with Nurnberg – a mighty unsuccessful campaign which saw them relegated.

The massive Czech was mighty good at club level for Anderlecht and Borussia Dortmund, his longest stay, but the goal total to most behold was with country. In 83 games he scored 52 times, a record for both the Czech Republic and The Artist Formerly Known As Czechoslovakia. During the month of June they’ll certainly need more of the same, with just 3 players having scored double digit goals for the CR, one of whom is tweener Marek Jankulovski, and particularly after the loss of Tomas Rosicky. Seems strange for such an important cog in the national team (6 goals in 11 qualifiers), in a time when players seem to be calling it quits a bit earlier, to be hanging them up in just over a month.