he strikers who made the headlines four years ago in America and at Italia '90 seem to have aged rather than grown up. Some can't run as fast as they used to, some have been living faster than they ought to and some have been cashing in their talent at clubs around the world, hopping from the English Premiership to the Italian Serie A to Japan's "J" League. This summer some will provide the backbone of their national teams while others will no doubt end up warming their backsides on the bench. Love their first touch of the ball, hate their post-match interviews or despair at their antics in the penalty box, this is what the characters of the World Cup have been doing lately:

DENNIS BERGKAMP
Nationality: Dutch
Age: 29
Bergkamp, ice-man, Dutch master, third-best player on the planet according to FIFA, has helped take London club Arsenal to double victories in the English Premiership and the F.A. Cup. His concentrated skill in controlling the ball around the feet of defenders is the scourge of the opposition. They try to shut him out of games any way they can--ankle kicking, shirt pulling, hard tackling. When he feels he is unprotected by referees Bergkamp throws his arms up with arrogant irritation more often than he exacts revenge with a perfectly finished goal. Strangely for such a fearless footballer, Bergkamp dreads flying and will not follow Arsenal into Europe next year unless he can do it by train or car--it's fortunate for the Dutch team that the World Cup is held in next-door France. Next time, when he'll still be a credible 33, will he forego the World Cup staged in South Korea and Japan? Or will he go by ship?

JURGEN KLINSMANN
Nationality: German
Age: 33
The long-time German master, who helped his country to win the 1990 World Cup and led it to victory in the European championship in 1996, has moved as peripatetically among teams (10 so far in Germany, Italy, Monaco and Britain) as he has pounded across the football field. One season with England's Tottenham Hotspur, 1994-95, saw him voted Footballer of the Year but ended in an acrimonious exchange with club chairman Alan Sugar. Klinsmann returned to Spurs for another tour in 1997 but that, too, ended after a dispute with the manager. Klinsmann will need to summon greater diplomatic skills now that the German coach Berti Vogts has selected his old antagonist, 37 year-old Lothar Matthaus, who captained the 1990 team, for this year's squad. Despite the combustible pairing, Klinsmann expects to win a fourth World Cup because "We enjoy the expectations and pressure and... we never give up."

FAUSTINO ASPRILLA
Nationality: Colombian
Age: 28 After two years at Newcastle in the English Premiership Asprilla was accused of lack of enthusiasm and was sold back to Parma earlier this year. "Tino" can blow hot and cold, huggable and thuggish. He can play alone up front and score strong subtle goals; or he can run futile circles in the midfield. He's legendary for wrecking four cars in Italy, kicking a Colombian bus, being convicted of firearms offenses, leaving his wife for a porn star and standing witness to an acquaintance of his on trial for possession of cocaine--he's an urchin, gremlin-possessed--but he has wit and skill and, on his best days, he can single-handedly turn matches toward victory.

GABRIEL BATISTUTA
Country: Argentina
Age: 29
Batistuta is a one-club man. Despite being much beloved in Florence, Fiorentina's lack of ambition in Serie A has the "Angel Gabriel" lusting after a move to a big fancy club. He's strong, quick, astute and has outscored Maradona for Argentina, but spent much of Argentina's qualifying campaign out of the national team. Argentine coach Daniel Passarella has said that Batistuta fails to fit in with his tactical vision. Others blame the footballer's long hair which Passarella has banned from his team, arguing that it distracts the footballer from his feet. Batistuta has now cut his hair (although it still has a tendency to hang dangerously over his collar), but it remains to be seen whether management and talent can be reconciled.

HRISTO STOITCHKOV
Nationality: Bulgarian
Age: 32
Stoitchkov, petulant and combative, has been peripatetic this season. Kicked out of Barcelona after a long-running battle with coach Louis Van Gaal, he played for his original club C.S.K.A. Sofia before picking up a contract to play in Japan after the summer. He did his chances of playing in France this summer no good when he railed at the Bulgarian football federation's decision to replace Dimitar Penev, the coach who had taken them to the semifinals of U.S.A. '94. He refused to play in a 1996 World Cup qualifying match against Israel and then was ignored for subsequent matches. Eventually, Stoitchkov reportedly turned up at the home of the new coach, Hristo Bonev, with a bouquet of flowers and asked for his place in the team back. He got it.