Soccer: All Whites beware - Santa Cruz is coming

His opposition as Paraguay's leading striker was shot in the head, his brother died in a car crash, his wife and kids were robbed at knifepoint and he is remembered most as the 2006 World Cup's sexiest man.

Little wonder 28-year-old injury-plagued Manchester City and Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz has a fierce wish to do well at the World Cup in South Africa this year - and that could be a distinct worry for the All Whites.

Santa Cruz doesn't want to be remembered as the best-looking man at the 2010 World Cup (German newspaper Die Welt and football magazine Kicker hung the title on him in 2006, well ahead of David Beckham) - and he bats away such questions with ease.

It will be how he looks on the field that will concern the All Whites. He is now almost certain to come up against New Zealand in their pool match on June 25.

That's because the man who might have led the Paraguayan front line, Salvador Cabanas, is still recovering from a bullet in the head, sustained in a Mexican bar in January and which almost killed him.

Cabanas' wounds will likely help Santa Cruz regain his place alongside striker Nelson Valdez, although Benfica's in-form goalscorer, Oscar Cardozo, is trying to claim that place too.

Santa Cruz is a former team-mate of All Whites skipper Ryan Nelsen at Blackburn Rovers (before he was purchased for £17.5m by Manchester City's then manager, Mark Hughes). He knows a little about New Zealand's footballing prowess.

"Ryan told me there is a lot of landscape and sheep. It's meant to have a very massive part of the land as forest. Yeah, it seems to be a very interesting country," he told reporter Kelvin Goodchild.

"Of course we all know its famous for the rugby, the All Blacks and the history involved with this sport.

"Through Ryan, I also learnt that football is quite new and not as professional as in other places yet. But it is something they are improving also.

"I saw their last game to qualify - just the highlights - it was a very open game. They seem to be very disciplined in defence but they were not making a lot of chances.

"But, it is a good team of course; that is the reason they achieved the World Cup so it is a team to watch out for."

If there's anything to watch out for, it's Santa Cruz. This will be his third World Cup - he was a 17-year-old at the 2002 version - and his 2006 campaign (the admiration of Die Welt aside) didn't go well, firing his ambitions for this one.

Paraguay lost 1-0 against England and Sweden and beat Trinidad and Tobago 2-0. Santa Cruz was affected by injury, didn't score, and Paraguay were eliminated.

"It was better for me in 2002. I got there young but I was in good shape and scored, so it certainly was one of the highlights. 2006 was a bit more sad to remember. I had a bad injury - I did my cruciate five months before the tournament and I just got in good shape to play. But I couldn't reach my level of football so I wasn't so happy."

He has again been cursed by injury this year - he has started only four times for Manchester City with eight appearances off the bench and has scored just two goals.

He had knee surgery last year and then further knee problems before a persistent calf problem. He is only now coming back to regular play for City, coming off the bench for brief appearances only.

It's all a far cry from when he rocketed to prominence at Bayern Munich and scored eye-catching goals at Blackburn.

Bayern Munich snapped him up from Paraguay and, between 2000 and 2005, they won four Bundesliga titles, five domestic cups and the 2001 Champions League (he was on the bench).

He was a cult hero with Bayern, was renowned in Germany, and, in 2004, even sang on a pop record, Ich, Roque - a pun on the phrase "I rock" - with an up and coming band, Sportfreunde Stiller.

It made the top 40 in Germany and Austria. He married his former beauty queen wife, Giselle, and they have two children, Tobias and Fiorella.

Then it all started to go a bit wrong. An ankle and knee injury affected him in 2002-03 and he had two knee operations the following year. In 2005, brother Oscar, just a year younger, perished in a car accident.

"It's beyond comparison to anything," he told the Independent at the time. "If you get injured, even if it takes eight months, you recover. You lose a brother, it hurts so deep that it never recovers. It was also painful to see how much losing him hurt my mother, so bad. We're a close family.

"It takes time to recover, and even when it's better, it's not the same. I guess that was also one reason later why I wasn't playing so well."

The 2005-06 season saw him injured, this time tendinitis, which seemed likely to keep him out of the World Cup and affected his form once there. His club manager lost patience and Santa Cruz wanted out, which was when Blackburn appeared.

Fully fit, he is rated highly for his aerial ability, his technique in scoring with either foot, his pace and his ability to work off defenders' shoulders.

His battle with Nelsen should be more than interesting.Yet Santa Cruz, injuries aside, has had to battle other reverses off the field. In December 2008, Giselle and their children were held up at knifepoint by robbers, forced to hand over jewellery worth thousands.

It was thought to have been part of what have come to be known as "away day" robberies in England's north-west, where footballers' homes are targeted while they are playing out of town. No one was hurt but the family were shaken badly.

The latest to be hit in that part of the world was Everton defender Phil Jagielka, late last year with the most outlandish his former Everton team-mate Andy van der Meyde - who lost his Ferrari, a Mini, eight Rolexes and a pedigree Dogue de Bordeaux puppy called Mac.

Jagielka was the 21st Premiership star in north-west England in just over three years to be subjected to a terrifying burglary. The thefts became so regular that bookmakers Paddy Power even offered odds on which Liverpool star would be burgled next, before swiftly withdrawing its bad joke.

But burglars or injury won't be on Santa Cruz's mind in South Africa.

"I want to make this World Cup the best one for me, so I do have massive expectations in being there," he said.

As they used to sing at Blackburn's Ewood Park, to the tune of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town: "You better watch out; you'd better beware ... Santa Cruz is going to town."

- Additional reporting from Kelvin Goodchild.