Not Giggs, not Bellamy – the real local hero of Cardiff is Earnshaw

"Earnie's going to get you, Earnie's going to get you, Earnie's going to get you..." the chant will reverberate around the Millennium Stadium on Wednesday, starting as a whisper before rising to a crescendo of such haunting menace that it would not be out of place in a Stephen King horror film. Any Bosnians in the 50,000-strong crowd expected for the friendly with Wales would be forgiven for wondering just what is going on. Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy have been prepared for, but who is this "Earnie"?

If the form book is anything to go by, it will not take them long to find out. Robert Earnshaw is a 21-year-old folk hero in the Welsh capital, possessing one of the most unlikely torsos for a striker in the dogfight known as the Nationwide Second Division, standing 5ft 6in and weighing a little over 9st.

He is also a striker who, up until yesterday, had scored 27 times already this term for Cardiff, making him a racing certainty to knock John Toshack's 31 goals in a season out of City's record books. But it is not simply a ratio of 0.81 goals a game that endears Earnie to every Welsh fan, bar the odd one in Swansea or Wrexham, of course.

It is the whole legend of the local boy who was plucked from the parks to play for his beloved Bluebirds and whose pace sped him through the ranks so quickly that barely weeks outside his teenage years he scored the winner on his Welsh debut against some nation called Germany.

But it was in Zambia that Earnshaw spent his early years. To call them formative would be a gross understatement, as by the age of 10 he had seen his father, David, die from typhoid fever. That was enough for Earnshaw's mother, Rita, to flee the African country and arrive in Wales with her five children.

Growing up in the shadow of Ninian Park, an area that contradicts the city's ill-founded reputation as a rugby hotbed, with every available green patch being utilised for football, Earnshaw was spotted by Cardiff's youth coach. A YTS contract was signed and with Cardiff then one of those clubs always referred to with the "cash-strapped" prefix, it was just a few months before he got his chance.

At Hartlepool on the opening day of the 1998-99 season, Cardiff must have known they were on to something when the 17-year-old scored on his debut with an overhead kick in a 1-1 draw. But one thing stopped Frank Burrows giving Earnshaw his run. His size, or lack of it, caused not only the Cardiff manager to fear for him. Andy Legg, the veteran Cardiff wing-back, remembers a scrawny lad "who was so small and slight that you wondered if he had the strength needed in the professional game. He had fantastic speed but I thought defenders would just knock him down".

Unsure what to do with this lean, but not very mean, scoring machine, Burrows loaned Earnshaw out to Fulham, Middlesbrough and Greenock Morton before a change of management lead to his return. This time Earnshaw was dispatched to the gym. "The great thing is he added muscle without losing any pace," Legg said. "He's well capable of looking after himself now."

Just ask Oliver Kahn, the great German goalkeeper, who was startled to collide into Earnshaw in the opening stages of their World Cup warm-up last May and then see him stand his ground. An hour later it was Kahn who was fumbling around on the floor after Earnshaw's curling left-footer completed a famous 1-0 win.

Inevitably, a move to the Premiership was touted, with rumours even of an £8m bid coming in from Manchester United, but the Cardiff chairman, Sam Hamman, declared Earnshaw was going nowhere and said he was willing to bet £1m with whoever doubted it.

As yet, there have been no takers as Earnshaw's goal rush has kept Cardiff in the promotion hunt. If international honours have not come as quickly then this is only because of the quality in this Welsh squad.

Mark Hughes sees Earnshaw as the ideal replacement for Bellamy, the Newcastle flyer who was instrumental in the 1-0 win over Italy last October that made qualification to Euro 2004 such a tantalising possibility. Earnshaw missed that heady night but returned for the 2-0 win in Azerbaijan the next month, and Hughes will surely be looking to blood him still further on Wednesday, if only to appease the Cardiff crowd.

Another overhead spectacular from Earnshaw at Northampton last Tuesday was probably not reported in Bosnia, but they have been warned. They should not be surprised if Earnie goes and gets them.