Italy 
The 30-year-old left-back was one of the surprise hits for Italy in their successful 2006 World Cup campaign, so much so that boss Marcello Lippi pushed the experienced Gianluca Zambrotta to the other side of the defence to accomodate Grosso.
And he certainly made plenty of headlines with his superb performances, getting forward to score with just a minute remaining in the sem-final against Germany and scoring the winning penalty in the final against France.
Earlier in the tournament though, he was embroiled in controversy when he theatrically dived in the box in the closing stages of a group clash with Australia to win a penalty which was converted for a 1-0 win to Italy.
Prior to the tournament, he moved from Palermo to Inter for a fee reported to be 5.5million euros, a fee which looked more and more a bargain as the competition went on.
But he stayed in Milan for only a year after failing to hit the same heights and switched to French champions Lyon in the summer of 2007.
As a result of his poor form, he made only four appearance for Italy in qualifying and he may find it difficult to find his way into the starting XI in Austria and Switzerland.
