Fearless Frick keen to face Eriksson's best

For a country with only 32,000 people, Liechtenstein has a disproportionately high number of talented people called Mario Frick. There's Mario Frick the former Prime Minister, who became Europe's youngest leader, aged 27, in the mid-1990s. There's Mario Frick the award-winning art director, who designs internet sites for major multinational companies. And then there's Mario Frick, Liechtenstein's most famous sportsman.

It is not known how closely Frick or Frick follow football, but Frick the footballer insisted yesterday that facing England will not faze him. And not just because tomorrow's opposition could be confused about precisely who he is.

His Alpine nation has only ever won one competitive match and invariably struggles to find the net – Frick is his country's joint-top scorer, with four goals – but he says that Sven Goran Eriksson's side hold no fear for him.

"Why should I be afraid of them when I was playing against Ronaldo in Serie A last season?" asked the 28-year-old striker, who spent the 2001-02 campaign in Italy's top flight with Hellas Verona.

"I'm really happy that we're playing against England and I hope that they play with their best players. I really like Michael Owen. He's quick and dangerous, like me. And I like Heskey, he's strong. We want to face the best. This is a big match for our young team."

Frick's father and seven uncles all played recreationally but his talents were the first in the family to attract attention from a professional side. After starting his career as a 16-year-old with FC Balzers, one of Liechtenstein's seven clubs, he moved at 19 to St Gallen in Switzerland. He then spent three years with FC Basle and a season with FC Zurich, where he played alongside Charlton's Shaun Bartlett.

He moved to Italy three years ago with Arezzo of Serie C, for whom he scored 16 times in 23 league matches and added another in the play-offs. He moved to Verona in the summer of 2001, and scored seven goals in Serie A last season, the last of which was the opener in a madcap 5-4 defeat against Lazio 11 months ago.

"Playing at that level was a wonderful experience against some great players," he said of facing the likes of Ronaldo and Christian Vieri, who scored three times between them when Internazionale beat Verona last year. "Big games are nothing new to me."

When Verona were relegated, Frick moved on to Ternana Calcio, another side playing Serie B football this season. He scored five times in his first 10 games but has suffered from an intermittent back injury since. Fortunately, for him if not for England, a recent trip to get his teeth fixed saw his problem solved.

"I went to see the dentist in Italy and he saw this big hole in my mouth. There was an infection and that had been causing the problems elsewhere in my body. When he fixed it my back also improved. Before I could not even train without pain. Now I'm feeling really free and just looking forward to the match."

Frick is under no illusion that Liechtenstein are likely to produce a shock. A draw would be a surprise while a win would be the biggest upset in England's international football history. But he remains hopeful that Eriksson's side will not hand out a drubbing to them.

"England are the strong favourites," he said. "But often the big favourites have problems, when they struggle against small nations. Our game plan is secret. But we hope to hold it at 0-0 for as long as possible."

Footballing success in Liechtenstein is a relative concept. Frick's last international outing, against Turkey, ended in a 5-0 defeat but he still describes it as "an excellent performance".

"I had some good chances, which I missed, but the main thing is that I had the chances at all. If we can do the same against England, hopefully we might score. If you don't have a positive state of mind, then you shouldn't be playing in a European qualifier."

Which of course Mario Frick and Mario Frick won't be. England just need to watch out for Mario Frick.