Thomas Müller

World Cup 2010 ended disappointingly for me when Germany was kicked out of the semi-finals. The Netherlands then went on to lose the Cup to Spain. However, one person shined for me this year and he is Thomas Müller. He won the adidas Golden Boot (for scoring the most number of goals) and the Best Young Player Award in this World Cup. A snippet of Thomas Müller:

Thomas Müller (born 13 September 1989 in Weilheim) is a German international footballer who plays for Bayern Munich. Müller plays as a midfielder or forward, and has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking midfielder, second striker, or on either wing. He has been praised for his pace, technique and composure, and has shown consistency in both scoring and creating goals. A product of Bayern's youth system, he made his first-team breakthrough under new Bayern manager Louis van Gaal during the 2009–10 season, playing almost every game as the club won the league and cup double, and reached the Champions League final. This earned him an international call-up, and at the end of the season he was named in Germany's squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where he scored five goals in six appearances as the team finished in third place. He was named as the Best Young Player of the tournament and with five goals and three assists, won the Golden Boot.

On 6 May, Müller was named in Germany's provisional 27-man squad for the 2010 World Cup, along with seven other Bayern Munich players. Despite suffering a scare when he fell off his bicycle at the team's training camp in South Tirol, Müller only suffered superficial injuries, and made the final cut for the tournament when the squad was reduced to 23 players on 1 June. He was allocated the number 13, normally worn by injured captain Michael Ballack, and previously worn by Müller's namesake Gerd. He earned his second international cap in the final warm-up match before the World Cup, coming on as a half-time substitute for Piotr Trochowski in a 3–1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. He started the first game of Germany's World Cup campaign, a 4–0 win over Australia and scored his first international goal, the third of the game. He played in all Germany's group games, as they finished top of Group D, and he scored twice and assisted once in the 4–1 victory over England in the round of 16. This made him the youngest player since Pelé to score multiple goals in a knockout round, and the youngest German since Franz Beckenbauer to do so in any game. He scored his fourth goal of the tournament in the quarter final against Argentina, opening the scoring in the third minute as Germany won 4–0. However, having picked up his second booking of the tournament in the second half, he missed the semi-final defeat against Spain. He returned to the team for the third-place playoff against Uruguay, scoring the first goal - his fifth of the tournament - as Germany won 3–2 to take the bronze medals. With five goals he ended as joint top goalscorer of the tournament, and his three assists meant that he won the Golden Boot.He has also won the Best Young Player Award, ahead of fellow nominees André Ayew of Ghana and Giovani dos Santos of Mexico.In both cases he succeeded a German team-mate, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski having won the respective awards in 2006.

... wikipedia