Chief Football Writer Hyder Jawad suggests that nature, not nurture, maketh the goalscorer...

Luciano Figueroa - remember him? He is the Argentina international striker whose Premiership career with Birmingham City amounted to three minutes.

Since leaving St Andrew's under a cloud on Christmas Eve 2003, he has won an Olympic gold medal and has emerged as one of the most lethal strikers in the Spanish La Liga.

He returned to England on Tuesday night with his club, Villarreal, to damage Everton's ambitions of reaching the group stages of the Uefa Champions League and emphasise his own rising star.

His presence, not to mention his fine goal at Goodison Park, highlighted the vagaries of locating talent from South America - and the fine line between success and failure.

Figueroa was brought to Birmingham for £2.5 million from Rosario Central after David Sullivan, the club's coowner, recommended the striker to manager Steve Bruce. It was early August 2003 and the fee seemed cheap for a striker who was compared to Gabriel Batistuta.

Five months later, after that three-minute appearance in the Premiership against Portsmouth and a 23-minute appearance against Blackpool in the League Cup, Figueroa joined Cruz Azul in Mexico after Birmingham cancelled his contract. His career could only go one way - up - and it did just that.

During the Olympic Games in Athens, after one of Argentina's matches in the group stages, I approached him in the interview room and asked him if he felt he would have made the grade with Birmingham had he stayed for longer.

Figueroa smiled, shook my hand, and walked away. Maybe it was my bad Spanish or maybe he did not want to discuss a subject that might have embarrassed him.

It certainly embarrassed Birmingham. When Figueroa helped Argentina reach the final of the Fifa Confederations Cup in June, Sullivan was quick to enter the debate concerning the striker.

"I find the whole Figueroa incident very depressing," Sullivan said. "I looked an utter mug for suggesting him and felt responsible when everyone said we should get rid of him.

"The lesson is that foreign players need time to adjust to the English game. Clearly, Figueroa is an exceptional finisher and goalscorer."

But even if Figueroa goes on to help Argentina win the World Cup in Germany next July, it is hard to see Blues manager Bruce having too many regrets.

The truth is that Figueroa, now 24, was never likely to make the grade at St Andrew's. He is just not a Bruce-type player. And he did not appear to like the Birmingham winters.

Figueroa, who has scored nine goals in 15 international appearances, seems to be one of those players who flourishes in his own environment but not necessarily in one alien to his background.

Alberto Tarantini, the bubble-permed Argentina international who won a World Cup winners' medal in 1978, was another and is tangible proof that reputation means little in England, and less so at St Andrew's.

There are some who will claim that Bruce is not known for spotting a good striker. It was he, after all, who let Andrew Johnson leave for Crystal Palace and brought in Clinton Morrison instead.

Johnson has since become an England international striker while Morrison, who is rapidly drifting down the pecking order at St Andrew's, seems destined for a move into the Coca- Cola Championship.

Whatever observers might say about the departures of Johnson and Figueroa, the perception remains that Birmingham have, in Emile Heskey and Mikael Forssell, the finest striking partnership in their history.

This is the one on which Bruce is staking his reputation. Heskey is the old-fashioned English centre forward, Forssell the Germanic labourer with an eye for goal. And waiting in the wings will be Walter Pandiani, a South American who seems to have had fewer problems with the Birmingham winter.

Less elegant than Figueroa, perhaps, but Pandiani will provide Birmingham with an added edge for the times when Heskey or Forssell need a rest.

Heskey was simply brilliant for much of last season. His performance at home to Liverpool in February, which Birmingham won 2-0, was proof that he is the England international he was always threatening to become.

And therein lies the irony. For years he was deemed to be short of international class yet consistently made the England squads. Now that he clearly is of the required standard, he seems to have been ignored by Sven-G^ran Eriksson.

Perhaps that is more a reflection of the fine strikers Eriksson has available to him. Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Jermain Defoe and Johnson are flourishing.

If Figueroa was English, then he probably would get nowhere Eriksson's international squad. But the striker is Argentinian, has skills unique to his background, and does best in a style of play that is alien to Birmingham City.

That is why, on this issue, Bruce is beyond criticism. It is OK having good players in your squad but if they cannot perform to the appropriate tactics or do not like the weather, they might as well be outside selling programmes.