There was something distinctly cosmopolitan about the stylish midfielder Southampton signed in 2006. Born in Czechoslovakia to a Czech international father, he was given the forenames of “Mario Kempes”, the full name of Argentina’s hero of the 1978 World Cup. And then, having spent his formative childhood years in France, while his dad played for Grenoble, Mario began his own career in his home-town Ostrava, before being loaned out to Italy.

His first stop in England was for a trial at West Ham, but it was George Burley who bit the bullet to bring this global footballer to St Mary’s. After all of which, Mario was injured in a pre-season friendly and took a while to make an impression. In fact, he featured in only a third of the 2006-07 Championship fixtures and it was only when Nigel Pearson took over, towards the end of the following season, that Mario’s talents were given free rein (see scrapbook press cutting).

But then, come the summer of 2008, his contract was up and Pearson was out. So Mario now alternated between his homeland and the country where he had grown up, picking up three caps along the way.