Roy Keane with a taste for dreadlocks

For Irish fans it was one of the less memorable aspects of the evening, but it was in Tilburg on April 20th 1994 when two teams preparing for that summer's World Cup came up against each other in a friendly that a 20-year-old midfielder then more or less unknown outside of The Netherlands made his international debut against the Republic of Ireland.

The Dutch, of course, lost that World Cup warm-up game 1-0 and Edgar Davids did little to mark himself out as a figure who might come to dominate the national team some six years later.

But having spent much of the intervening time in the international wilderness, the battling Juventus star is now precisely where he belongs: centre stage and, ahead of this evening's game against France, the driving force within a team that is showing definite signs of warming to the challenge presented by this European Championship.

For an instant indication of just what type of player Davids is, you need only check on his nicknames - "pitbull" or "piranha" depending on the stage of his career - neither of which suggest a cultured passing game in the fashion of Didier Deschamps, the man who he effectively displaced as Zinedine Zidane's midfield partner in Turin.

Not that the 27-year-old is exactly short on technical skills. Far from it; he is an excellent passer of the ball who reads the game instinctively.

But Davids has a harder edge to his game, too, he is the Roy Keane of the Dutch national team and for all the stars that Frank Rijkaard has to select from these days, he is no less important to his national coach than the Corkman is to Mick McCarthy.

Born in Surinam, Davids arrived in Amsterdam before his second birthday and grew up in some of the toughest suburbs on the city's north side. His first club was Schellingwoude, but it was never going to be long before word spread of his potential.

Others graduated from the club to Ajax before him, but when Davids moved at 18 he made up for lost time by breaking, almost immediately, into the club's first team and helping the side to the UEFA Cup in his first full season.

Since then he has picked up a steady succession of honours, with the real breakthrough coming back in 1995. The Ajax team that season contained both the current Dutch coach and a good selection from the squad he brought home for this tournament.

Patrick Kluivert, Edwin Van Der Sar, the De Boer brothers, Clarence Seedorf, Michael Reiziger and Marc Overmars all figured as Louis Van Gaal's side beat Milan in the final of the Champions League. All immediately became transfer targets for the biggest clubs around the continent.

Davids played out the year remaining on his contract before joining Milan the following summer on a free transfer, but a broken shin bone proved a major setback while his temperament - he fell out first with coach Fabio Capello and then with several of his team-mates - didn't help matters much.

Off the field, there was also an incident in which he was racially abused by two thugs while driving along a motorway. The player pulled his car over, got out and took on both hooligans, after which he drove away again; they were obliged to pay a visit to the local hospital.

At Euro '96 his determination not to be discriminated against cost him dearly when, after being omitted for the game against Switzerland, he accused then national coach Guus Hiddink of preferring to choose the white players at his disposal. Hiddink sent him home immediately.

It was some time before Hiddink offered him another chance, and when he did it was largely at the behest of his Dutch clubmates at Juventus - Seedorf, Reiziger, Kluivert and Aron Winter - who he joined up with after leaving Milan in 1997.

"It's true, Milan was a mistake," Davids admitted afterwards, "but I learned there what it is to be a footballer of the highest level and what I had to do each day if I wanted to reach the top."

In Turin he put the lessons into practice and quickly emerged as a major star.

Three years later, Johan Cruyff says that he provides the "emotion" and "fire" that the Dutch team requires to prosper, Hiddink credits him with having "more passion in his right toe than other internationals possess in both of their legs" and Rijkaard identifies him as the player who "during the match, tows the rest of the team along". He is, without doubt, indispensable to the side.

All the more so given Rijkaard's dedication to attacking football.

During the 3-0 defeat of Denmark, the Dutch coach opted to play what was as close to a 4-2-4 formation as you are going to see in the modern international game. That leaves an awful lot of space for Davids and his partner, Philip Cocu, to cover, but after a relatively quiet game against the Czechs, Davids proved he was up to the task.

Combining the ability to win the ball in defensive positions, run with it and get it forward to the frontmen quickly, he is the man around which everything revolves. Even now he still gives away too many frees and picks up far too many bookings. Like his Irish counterpart, though, he possesses the sort of quality that makes it rather easy to overlook the shortcomings.