Before him a string of foreign coaches had been employed in the lead role, but Switzerland's football fans took to their new man immediately as he led them to the 2004 European Championship.

This summer will see the country take part in the Championships for the first time since Euro 96, and it is in no small part due to the impact of Kuhn.

He was promoted from his role as Under-21 coach and although many sceptics doubted his ability to control the squad's strong personalities, Kuhn proved them wrong.

Kuhn has introduced a new generation of Swiss talent to the ranks and will be hoping his young players will do him proud in Portugal.

As a player, Kuhn was a midfielder, spending the large part of his career with FC Zürich, in all making more than 500 appearances over 16 years.

With Zürich, Kuhn won no less than six league championships and five Swiss cups.

He won a total of 63 caps for Switzerland.