Henrik Larsson [Images] will be 35 in September and after the World Cup will be winding down his fantastic career with his home town club of Helsingborg but his opponents in Germany [Images] cannot afford to ignore him for a second.

To prove the point, he helped to transform last week's Champions League final when he came on as a second-half substitute for Barcelona and made both goals to turn a 1-0 deficit against Arsenal [Images] into a 2-1 victory march.

Larsson can do a similar job for Sweden if necessary and could well leave a final, lasting impression on the international scene.

He first made his mark for Sweden as a timid youngster with dreadlocks when he fired home the winning penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Romania at the 1994 World Cup.

The deadly striker also scored in the 4-0 drubbing of Bulgaria in the third-place playoff match at the finals in the United States during his first international competition.

However, in those days he was running in the shadows of Kennet Andersson and Martin Dahlin, Sweden's great strikers, as well as midfield maestro Tomas Brolin.

Twelve years on it is a different story.

The World Cup in Germany will be his fifth major tournament and he enters it as Sweden's oldest and most capped player.

In 1997, after a four-year spell with Feyenoord, Larsson signed for Celtic where he would prove himself as one of the great goalscorers of his generation, keeping his career intact after a serious leg break put him out of the game for almost an entire season.

Seven seasons with the Scottish side garnered four League titles and two Cups, during which the Swede poured in 242 goals in 315 matches before moving on to Barcelona in 2004.

With 34 goals in 88 Sweden appearances, he is third on their all-time scoring list but Larsson is a team player first and foremost who runs tirelessly to create space for others.

Sweden coach Lars Lagerback describes him as a player with no weaknesses and a "crystal clear understanding of the game both in attack and defence".

The World Cup will most likely be Larsson's last major championship and he has already hinted that he wants a slower pace of life after years at the top.

He has resisted Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard's attempts to persuade him to stay at the Nou Camp for another year despite enjoying his best spell with the Catalans where he has started up front alongside Ronaldinho [Images] and Samuel Eto'o in this season's Champions League.

Instead, he will return to his old Swedish first division club Helsingborg in July, after 13 years abroad. First, though, he wants to go out in a blaze of glory at the World Cup where his goals could help Sweden to reach the later stages.