Emmet Malone on how the striker has found it hard at senior level to reach the heights of his Under-20 World Cup success under coach Jose Pekerman.

He may only be 24 but the story of his career already sounds a little like that old legend about the guy from room service who enters a room containing George Best, a former Miss World and a bed covered in cash only to enquire off the Irishman where had it all gone wrong.

For Javier Saviola there has been no wild drinking and, so for as the outside world knows, just one woman. Still, it seems the slightly-built striker from Buenos Aires must prove himself time and again if he is to successfully counter suggestions from almost every quarter - though most importantly from his managers at club level - that he is not quite the finished article.

Argentina's coach at this World Cup, Jose Pekerman, has no such doubts about the player's ability, underlined yesterday when he confirmed Saviola will start in his side's attack against Ivory Coast while the likes of Barca wonderkid Lionel Messi, Corinthians top scorer Carlos Tevez and Saviola's close friend from their River Plate days, Pablo Aimar, all warm the bench.

That Pekerman has shown loyalty to a player who has served him well, however, is hardly a surprise.

The former international was out of the game and driving a taxi back at home before the chance to get into youth team coaching came his way. His subsequent success made him something of a sensation in Argentina, with three Under-20 World Cup successes - 1995, '97 and 2001 - establishing not only his reputation but that of several of the most prominent members of this current team, including playmaking midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme and skipper Juan Pablo Sorin.

Few if any, though, scaled quite the heights Saviola managed in the 2001 tournament for the now 56 year-old.

Playing in front of his home crowd, Saviola scored a tournament record 11 goals and was named the competition's best player. A disorderly queue of European clubs formed for his signature with Barcelona narrowly ahead of the pack.

For the young Saviola, nicknamed "El Conejo" (the rabbit) by former team-mate, goalkeeper Germán Burgos, the decision to leave River Plate so young might have proven more difficult had it not been for the fact his father Roberto was battling liver cancer at the time and the family hoped that a move to Spain would mean access to better treatment.

The youngster had been at the Argentinian club since he was five and finished his education at their academy. He met Aimar during their first season there and the pair have remained close. The day he was named in the club's senior team, October 18th, 1998, was, he says, the only time he was moved to tears by football.

He scored that day and went on to become both the country's and continent's player of the year within two years.

Despite his desperation to press ahead quickly with it, the move to Europe didn't come in time for his father.

From a professional point of view, however, the €24 million move looked a promising one for the young striker who had impressed the club's scouts with his ball control, bursts of speed and, inevitably, his eye for goal.

In the three years that followed he did quite well, scoring 61 goals for the Catalan giants despite often having to play out wide but he never quite won over the team's Dutch coach Louis van Gaal.

He could have been forgiven for expecting an improvement in his fortunes when Frank Rijaard arrived but it was made clear to him he had no place in the new manager's plans and he accepted the offer of a loan move to Monaco.

He seemed to prosper there, scoring 17 goals, including four in seven Champions League appearances, but the club were in transition and at the end of the campaign he was returned to the Camp Nou. In need of a replacement for Brazilian striker Julio Cesar Baptista, who they had just sold to Real Madrid, Seville came calling and once again Saviola took the opportunity to play first-team football.

It started badly for him, a knee injury sidelining him through the first month of last season during which time Freddie Kanoute and Brazil's Luis Fabiano established themselves as Juande Ramos' first-choice pairing up front.

Steadily, though, the Argentinian edged his way in and despite being laid up again for a spell in January he finished the season with another respectable goal tally - 15 - six of them in the Uefa Cup which became the club's first European trophy back in May.

Saviola was quiet in the final and like Riquelme, he does blow hot and cold but his overall contribution to the team's success was beyond question and it seemed he had finally found a club where he was wanted. The club president offered him a four-year deal but deterred by his manager's lack of enthusiasm, declined to meet the player's wage demands.

Last week Saviola's agent conceded another move was now inevitable and requested talks with Barcelona, to whom he is contracted for another year, to see whether they plan to use him in a deal, possibly for Villarreal's Diego Forlan.

At senior international level his progress was initially stymied by then manager Marcelo Bielsa, an admirer of van Gaal, who shared the Dutchman's cool assessment of the lightweight striker. Pekerman's promotion, though, quickly brought better times and while Messi's lack of fitness may have benefited him there is a strong suggestion he would have started this evening anyway.

"There are a lot of us, all pretty good, in the squad," he said on Wednesday before his starting place was officially confirmed. "The most in-form player will play and the others will just have to accept that. In recent months I had to work really hard to get into the Seville team and then to earn the right to be here, now I just want to enjoy the moment.

"When I've played alongside Crespo, it's gone well," he added before revealing he had been assured of his place. "I don't know whether I'll be in front of him this time or alongside, it'll depend on the different match situations. But we'll be up against a very quick defence and we'll just have to try to make the most of the few chances we get."

In a group containing four teams targeting a place in the last eight or better over the next few weeks, Pekerman's loyalty may quickly be exhausted if the pair don't deliver. The return to full fitness of Messi is also a threat too.

Just now, however, Saviola's focus is unlikely to be on how things might go wrong.