Germany v Sweden: Emmet Malone profiles Sweden talisman Henrik Larsson as he prepares to face hosts Germany in today's last 16 in Munich

When Niclas Alexandersson scored an equalising goal for Sweden against England in their opening game of the 2002 World Cup a young Jordan Larsson burst into tears back at home in front of the television and, while still sobbing, asked his mother if this meant that his dad wasn't coming home.

His father, Henrik, enjoyed a good World Cup, scoring three goals in four games but when he returned he announced that the son's distress had made up his mind, he was quitting international football in order to spend more time at home.

Two years later, with Jordan's approval, he was back for Euro 2004 where he again performed strongly, a key part of a Swedish side that has never been overburdened with really world-class talent.

Then, as this afternoon in Munich where Sweden take on Germany, there are perhaps three or four top class players but Larsson remains the most important, an inspirational figure who can turn a game on its head with his vision, touch and insightful movement. A quiet spoken and rather private character, he does not, some close observers of the team lament, show leadership to equal his talent but settles instead for setting an example in terms of effort and application that he expects others to follow. And he knows how to score too as Tuesday's goal against England, his 36th in 92 international appearances once again reminded us.

Having grown up watching English football during a childhood scarred by racial abuse - his father, a sailor, came to Sweden from Cape Verde - and thrived on the Scottish game where he became legendary with Celtic, it's not hard to imagine his joy at scoring against Sven-Goran Eriksson's side. Helping his side to a victory over the hosts, however, would surely be no less sweet.

If, on the other hand, Sweden lose - and they have not played especially well to date - then this could come to mark the 34-year-old's final appearance on a truly major stage, the beginning of the final phase of a career that started, as it will end, with his hometown club of Helsingborgs.

He will be best remembered for his time with Celtic but his move to Scotland was something of an accident, prompted by a contractual wrangle with Feyenoord that ended up in the courts. His strike rate at the Dutch club had been good and the fee, £650,000 scarcely represented a huge gamble even at a club where money was extremely tight, but Wim Jansen's decision to sign the Swede was not immediately seen as inspired.

The striker arrived in Glasgow, "too excited to eat, too excited to read," he recalled afterwards. "I knew this was my chance."

His first attempt to impress, though, did not exactly endear him to the club's fanatical supporters with Larsson, making his debut as a 59th-minute substitute against Hibernians, giving the ball carelessly to Chic Charnley who promptly scored what proved to be the winning goal for the Edinburgh outfit.

The inauspicious start was soon forgotten, though, as he began to show his own ability to find the target. Over the next seven seasons (six really, for he was out for almost a year after a bad leg break) he scored a staggering 242 goals in all competitions, helping to bring four league titles and a string of cup success to the club.

His impact was enormous, something confirmed by former players and manager, Tommy Burns, who observed: "I am too young to have seen historic figures like Jimmy McGrory and Patsy Gallacher, but after watching Celtic for the last 40 years I can't think of anyone to rival Henrik."

His team-mate and fellow Swede Johan Mjallby, meanwhile, went further when he remarked: "I can't think of anyone who has had such an impact on a club apart from maybe (Diego) Maradona in Napoli."

Maradona, of course, had helped the Naples club to conquer the giants of the Italian game while Celtic were seen by outsiders as having just one vaguely credible rival. Asked on one occasion if it was not difficult to motivate himself for a visit to Kilmarnock he cheerfully replied, "Not at all. They've just built a new stadium there. It is really nice."

Still, the sceptics remained unconvinced he could make anything like the same impact in a more competitive environment. The English Premiership was what most had in mind but Larsson passed up on a string of offers from English clubs and chose instead to accept one from Barcelona . Not long after his arrival at the Nou Camp, however, the club signed Samuel Eto'o and it became apparent Larsson would struggle to nail down a place. He still did well, though, before suffering a torn cruciate ligament during his first game against Real Madrid, an injury that would sideline him until the closing weeks of the season.

In his absence Barca did enough to win La Liga for the first time in six years but the ovation he received upon his return suggested he had already become a favourite of the fans. In his second year there he was obliged to settle for the role of substitute until Eto'o went to the African Cup of Nations. Finally allowed a run of starts for the team he impressed with a string of strong performances that soon left him with the best goals to minutes on the pitch ratio of anyone at the club.

When Eto'o returned the Swede again found his opportunities limited but he displayed a remarkable ability to turn games in which the team was struggling, most memorably the Champions League tie at Chelsea and the final in Paris where Thierry Henry hailed him as the difference between the two teams.

"People talk about Ronaldinho but I didn't see him today - I saw Henrik Larsson. He changed the game, killed it," observed the Arsenal striker afterwards. Back in Spain the sports daily Marca gushed about how the Swede had "blown the final apart with his movement and intelligence", while former Spain international Julio Salinas, now a newspaper columnist, named him as the club's player of the year, not so much for his contribution to the winning of the European crown or to any specific performances in the successful defence of the league but rather for the quietly professional way in which he had accepted his role as substitute and the consistent way in which he made the required impact from the bench.

The club's supporters also recognised him as a hero but they already knew he would not be around after the summer. Annoyed, some way, by the lack of a new offer from the club he agreed to return to his hometown club, Helsingborgs. By the time Barcelona did attempt to keep him his mind was made up. He had, he said, promised his wife, Magdalena, they would return home with their two children, Jordan, named after Michael Jordan, and a daughter, Janelle. The boy, he observed, "still speaks with a Glaswegian accent and is much more Scottish than Swedish," while the girl was actually born in Scotland but, he added, he wanted them to spend their formative years back in the country where he grew up.

The decision was rather typical of a man who has always known his own mind and whose family had always been a major fact in his career decisions. Most observers expect he will also retire from international football after this tournament in order to spend more time with them. Before then, however, even Jordan is probably hoping his dad gets to stay away just a little bit longer.