STOCKHOLM, May 24 - Few Swedish players have experienced the roller-coaster ride in the media spotlight quite like Juventus striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Snapped up by coach Fabio Capello in 2004, he gallantly filled the shoes of the injured David Trezeguet and went on to steer Juve to the Serie A title as the club's top scorer.

A year later the 24-year-old has endured one of the toughest phases of his career following the Turin side's Champions League defeat at the quarter-final stage by Arsenal and their subsequent involvement in an alleged match-fixing scandal in Italy.

He was booed off the pitch and heavily criticised by Italian newspapers after failing to score in the second leg and although he was no worse than the rest of the team on that miserable night his form has certainly not been good.

Looking slow and uninspired, Ibrahimovic managed only a handful of goals in Serie A this season and Sweden can only hope he improves in time for the finals in Germany, where he will partner Henrik Larsson up front.

There is, however, no question about the potential of the Bosnian-born striker.

Tall, technically adept and physically strong, he has been compared more than once to Marco Van Basten, the great Dutch striker whom Capello coached at AC Milan in the early nineties.

His skills found a wider audience during the Euro 2004 group stage when he scored with an astounding back-flick volley against Italy that earned Sweden a draw.

That goal to some extent sums up Ibrahimovic, who relies on his awesome technique to do the unexpected but still lacks the "goal radar" of Trezeguet or Andriy Shevchenko's knack of being in the right place at the right time to score with ease.

He spent most of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan on the bench but that will not happen this time around, regardless of his form.

With 18 goals in 37 internationals, Ibrahimovic is widely tipped to go down in history as one of Sweden's greatest players but he needs to find his form in Germany to confound the sceptics.