In the immediate wake of Greece's dramatic silver goal win over the Czech Republic in Thursday night's semi-final in Porto, the hero of the hour, goalscoring defender Traianos Dellas, waxed proud in a little speech that took him well beyond the confines of football: "Tonight, I gave great joy to my team-mates, to my coach and to my country. This is a very important year for Greece because we are hosting the Olympic Games. I can tell you that, despite all the reports, Greece will be ready to host the best Olympics ever . . ."

Given the moment that was in it, Dellas could be forgiven his all-too-understandable outburst of patriotic fervour. For underdogs everywhere, for the Greek people and not least for Dellas himself, it was a moment to savour.

After all, fortune's fickle wheel has seen the Dellas career endure more traumatic "downs" than the "ups" of Euro 2004. If he had stopped the other night to think back to the springtime of two years ago, 28-year-old Dellas would have had good reason to believe he was dreaming.

At that time, he was caught up in a dispute with his then club, Serie A side Perugia, owned by the volcanic Luciano Gaucci (the man who sacked South Korean Jung-Hwan Ahn after he had knocked Italy out of the 2002 World Cup).

Dellas, who had moved to Perugia from AEK Athens for €1.2 million in the summer of 2001, had refused to renew his one-year contract.

Gaucci argued that the Greek defender's refusal was a tacit admission that he had already agreed terms with a Serie A rival, to which he would then move on a "Bosman" free transfer at the end of the season. Furious with the player, Gaucci kicked him out of the first team, ordering him not only to train with the Beretti youth team (including two sessions every Sunday) but also banning him from the Perugia first-team dressing-room.

By way of response, Dellas had appealed to an Italian Federation arbitration board to have his Perugia contract rescinded. Furthermore, he presented the club with a medical certificate claiming that such was the stress caused by his situation he urgently needed a 40-day break.

In the end, after threats of litigation, the matter was resolved and Dellas did indeed move to Roma the following season on a free transfer that was made possible by the good relations between Gaucci and Roma. However, the affair left its mark.

For a start, when he arrived at Roma, Dellas had not played competitive football for eight months. Not surprisingly, he was slow to show his best form and failed to establish a first-team berth. When he might have gone on to win that team place in this second season at Roma, Dellas found his path blocked by Roma's new signing, the Romanian Christian Chivu.

Thus it is that the hero of Thursday's semi-final has played in only 24 league games for Roma in the last two seasons, coming on as a substitute in many of those. Mind you, the experience is not a new one. In two seasons between 1997 and 1999 with Sheffield United in the English First Division, he knocked up just 28 league outings.

If Dellas feels just a tad vindicated when he steps out to play in the European Championship final tomorrow, you can hardly blame him. He might be a reserve in Serie A and he might have failed in the less than awesome English First Division but here he is lining out at one of world football's gala occasions, long after nearly all the "galaticos", "fuoriclasse" and "megastars" of the Primera Liga, Serie A and the Premiership have gone home.

Whatever reservations we might have about the defensive football played by Greece to get to this final, there is no denying that what they do, they do well. The tall, imposing Dellas has played a key part in that Greek defensive solidity. Long before he scored that dramatic winner on Thursday night (his first goal for Greece), he had already distinguished himself in a defence that for long periods shut out the Czechs.

Little wonder that Greek newspaper Ethnos yesterday hailed his exploits with a headline that read: "Hail Our Colossus of Rhodes, The Man Who Drove The Greeks To Paradise". Perhaps Dellas does not quite merit being ranked alongside one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

He does, however, merit respect while his presence and that of Greece in tomorrow's final are a tribute to the unending fascination of football.

Good luck to him.