Trezeguet still has a point to prove

LONDON, England (CNN) -- After one season spent in the footballing backwaters of Serie B, Juventus announced their return with a comprehensive 5-1 thumping of little Livorno. Bagging a last-minute hat-trick was David Trezeguet, the striker playing his seventh season for the club who is a French World Cup and European Championship winner to boot.

For a player who has had more international success than most, the forward might not feel he has anything left to prove, but this could be a pivotal season for the 29-year-old.

Last year he only managed 15 goals against Serie B opposition and since the 2006 World Cup final he has lost his place in the France squad.

While he battled against the likes of Lecce and Pisa last season he has somewhat fallen out of public consciousness as one of Europe's top strikers, despite an impressive record of 113 goals in 159 starts for the Italian club.

Nor did his name much bother the rumour mongers that write the back pages over the summer -- the only link the player had to a move away from the Stadio delle Alpi was to Arsenal, as a replacement for his best friend and compatriot, Thierry Henry.

By the time he moved to Turin from Monaco in 2000 he had already reached the pinnacle of the game, scoring the winning golden goal against Italy in the final of the 2000 competition.

Now after seven season he is one of the Old Lady's elder statesmen, leading the line with the other Juve old-timer and home favorite, Alessandro Del Piero, and seems happy at the club.

However, playing in the shadow of the prodigal son of Italian football and coping with the parochialism of Italian fans, hasn't always been easy for Trezeguet.

"It isn't easy, particularly for a foreigner, you always have to show something extra," he told Italian newspaper, Tuttosport.

Lacking prodigious skill or pace to burn Trezeguet is more of an old fashioned goal-poacher, relying on timing and positioning to get into the box, plus good service from midfield to score most of his goals.

With new coach Claudio Ranieri at the helm, "Trezegol" seems to be happy to continue to lead the line again this season.

A content life at Juve is in contrast to his international situation. France coach Raymond Domenech has been opening critical of Italian football and the match fixing scandal that rocked Italy last year. And Trezeguet seems to have caught some of the flack, despite a good record of scoring 34 goals in 69 appearances for his country.

Since February he has only been called into the France squad for the match against Slovakia on August 22, and was relegated to an appearance for the B team, which exacerbated the animosity between the two.

"The feeling with coach Claudio Ranieri is not comparable to that with France national coach Raymond Domenech," he told TuttoSport.

"He relegated me to the French B team and I felt very embarrassed by this. No one knows what France B is, you play in a small stadium with few people watching. Domenech humiliated me."

Even hat-tricks against stiffer opposition than Livorno might not make M. Domenech to change his mind, but perhaps finally becoming a local favorite at Juve will make up for it. E-mail to a friend