Five potential Golden Boot winners at this summer’s World Cup

1. Thomas Muller: Germany (16 goals in 47 games)

On first glance, Germany’s squad appears to be somewhat understaffed in the striker department compared to many of their rival nations.

Jogi Low has only called up one out-and-out striker, Miroslav Klose, to his squad, with the rest of his forward line set to be made up of more versatile players able to play in a number of advanced positions such as Marco Reus, Andre Schurrle and Lukas Podolski. Yet in Thomas Muller, Germany have one of the most unorthodox yet highly effective goalscorers around at present.

The Bayern Munich attacking midfielder remains an enigma for many largely due to his uncanny ability to find space and punish opponents without possessing the kind of pace, strength or technique finishers usually rely upon to find a cutting edge in front of goal.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Muller pipped David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan to the Golden Boot after all four players scored five goals each. The German’s higher number of assists tipped him him ahead of his peers however, handing him the award.

Having been Bayern’s most prolific chance creator in the Bundesliga this season, his ability to provide for others could give him an advantage once again should individual scorers fail to breakaway from the pack in Brazil.