Promise of great things: Kaka has played a pivotal role in Brazil's qualification campaign

Caps: 75
Goals: 26
World Cup appearances: 6 (2002, 2006)
World Cup 2010 qualification: 11 appearances/5 goals

Club: Real Madrid, Spain
Age: 27
Position: Midfielder

This born-again Christian, and potentially the defining star of the World Cup, almost did not have a career in football at all after a swimming pool accident aged 18 threatened paralysis.

A playmaker par excellence, with a peerless economy of movement in possession, he was the subject of a world-record £91 million bid by Manchester City last summer but ended up succumbing to the allure of Real Madrid.

His role in Brazil's recent successes has been pivotal. He started his first World Cup finals in 2006, scoring in his country's opening game against Croatia.

But club demands have occasionally taken their toll, as when he was forced to drop out of the 2007 Copa America. Ominously, he was named player of the tournament in this year's Confederations Cup, which Brazil won, the curtain-raiser to the World Cup.