BERTI VOGTS hopes to line up South African-born Sean "Crocodile" Dundee against Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifying match in November.

The German national coach talked Dundee out of accepting an international call-up for South Africa last December (after rumours that he was eligible for the Republic of Ireland) and has since been keeping his shoulder against the administrative door to hurry through the player's naturalisation forms.

Dundee (23), scored 16 goals for Karlsruhe last season after joining them from third division Ditzingen for £100,000.

The boy from Bayview, Durban, who has lived in Germany for four years, is the Bundesliga's leading scorer this season with nine in 10 league games, plus four in the Cup and Europe.

Karlsruhe captain Thomas Hassler is full of praise. "He's like a grenade with the clip off. He'll be playing for Germany soon," said the international midfielder.

Vogts, who coached Germany to the European Championship, said he had been promoting Dundee's case since the beginning of the year.

He had asked the German government to speed it up in May so Dundee could have played in Euro '96, but the government refused.

"I hope that his naturalisation will be dealt with swiftly as I am keeping the door open so I can name him in the squad for the match with Northern Ireland in November," Vogts said.

Franz Beckenbauer, the first man to both play in and manage a World Cup-winning side, has no doubts about Dundee.

"He might not have been known before, but he's a must for any club now," said Germany's former coach who is now president of Bayern Munich.

Karlsruhe coach Winfried Schaefer hopes to have put off the poachers stalking this particular crocodile by talking Dundee into signing a new contract keeping him at Karlsruhe until 2003. "He's a phenomenal scorer," Schaefer said.

German national captain Jurgen Klinsmann said: "He'd be welcomed into the side with open arms."