He may not be as prolific a striker as Thierry Henry or David Trezeguet, even if he did once spend a season in the same club side as them. He may not have the mercurial skills of his compatriot, the former Croatia striker Davor Suker. Yet, notwithstanding those reservations, Euroscene is pleased to announce our very own Player of Year - Dado Prso of Croatia and Monaco.

Dado who? That indeed was the question on many lips on the first Wednesday of last November when the previously unheralded Prso scored four goals in Monaco's 8-3 rout of hapless Deportivo La Coruna in a Champions League game. By the end of that month, Prso had done it again scoring both home and away in Croatia's Euro 2004 play-off with neighbours Slovenia.

To suggest that Prso has burst onto the international scene from nowhere is to state but the bare minimum. Largely unknown outside French football until that madcap night against Deportivo, Prso now heads into the new year as a first choice selection not only for Euro 2004 finalists Croatia but also in a Monaco side that currently leads the French first division and which has every chance of making the Champions League quarter-finals.

Fame has not exactly come quickly for Prso. He won his first cap for Croatia in a 4-0 Euro 2004 qualifier win against Belgium last March at the ripe old age of 28. His call up by Croat coach Otto Baric was considered a major surprise, with commentators suggesting that he was "completely unknown" in his homeland. The "unknown" Prso silenced the doubters by scoring on his international debut.

In some senses, it was understandable that Prso was considered no prophet in his homeland. Having left Croatia to move to French club AC Ajaccio at the age of 22 in the 1997/'98 season, Prso went out of sight, notwithstanding 13 second division goals for Ajaccio in his second season.

Those goals did, however, attract the interest of Monaco who signed him for the 1999/2000 season. A disappointing first season there saw him bag just two first division goals, whilst injuries practically wiped out the next two campaigns before he finally began to hit form last season, scoring 12 league goals.

To those who suggest he has arrived rather late on the top class scene, Prso has a ready-made answer: "You've got to remember that I only got back into the Monaco team halfway through last season, after being out for the previous 18 months with a bad injury. It's also true that when I first arrived here at Monaco, there was fierce competition for team places because there were guys like Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet in the squad."

Consistent form and a role in Monaco's French League Cup win last season earned Prso his squad place this season. Yet, when it came to that infamous game against Deportivo, he seemed destined for the bench until a thigh strain ruled out Monaco's first choice central striker, Spanish international and former Real Madrid player, Fernando Morientes. In truth, the game against Deportivo represented Prso's first ever start in a Champions League match, and that too at the age of 29.

At 6ft 2in tall, with an imposing physique, a fearsome stare and a Celtic warrior's hairstyle, Prso is the classic central target man who puts himself about and whose mere presence represents a major headache for opposition defences.

Cruelly dubbed by some as a "rich man's Emile Heskey" (apologies to Liverpool fans), Prso heads into the new year knowing he still has to convince those sceptics who feel he is nothing more than an "overnight sensation" on a good run that is about to end.

For now, Prso is not thinking about Euro 2004 with Croatia, concentrating rather on the the Champions League, where Monaco have been handed a relatively "soft" draw against the dour Russian side, Lokomotiv Moscow. Prso admits that Monaco are the favourites, but "only on paper".

As for the long-term future, Prso, who is out of contract at the end of the season and who has been courted by English Premiership side Fulham amongst others, admits that things are looking rosy, saying: "I'm not thinking about next season that much but it's true that a lot of clubs have been in contact with me."

Could be that we will hear a lot more about Dado Prso in the year 2004.