Germany 2014 World Cup: Will Germany's Mueller One Day Break Ronaldo's Record?

The all-time record for goals scored at the World Cup is fifteen, a record held by one of the greatest to ever play the game. His name is Ronaldo, no not Cristiano Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo, “El fenomeno.” Ronaldo scored his fifteen goals over the span of three different World Cups. Four of those came in 1998, eight came in 2002, and three came in 2006. It is an impressive stat line; even for a guy some say is the greatest striker who ever lived. But how long will that record stand?

Thomas Mueller is currently 24 years old. The tournament in Brazil is already his second time that he has played in the World Cup, and if he stays healthy long enough, whose to say he can’t play in another two or three. So why are we talking about him? Well, if you haven’t heard already, the Bayern Munich striker already has eight World Cup goals to his name. EIGHT. That is unheard of. How did he get there that quickly? Well he scored five goals in South Africa four years ago winning the Golden Boot along the way, and then he calmly added another three against Portugal less than a week ago. Thomas Mueller has more goals in the World Cup than he has games played.

He may not be the type of player who will step over the ball a hundred times and juke a player to his knees, but he is the player that knows how to get into the right positions in order to score goals. He already has the backing of German and Bayern Munich legend Gerd Mueller to break the all time goal scoring record, and who could doubt him?

Indeed he is not yet halfway to breaking Ronaldo’s mark, but at the pace he is currently going at, who knows how long that record will stand. Thomas Mueller will not average more than a goal a game for the rest of his World Cup career, but he doesn’t need to. Germany will more than likely come out of the group stage at almost any World Cup, and you can be certain that Thomas Mueller will be on every German team for the next ten years.

Like I said, he still has more than halfway to go to catch Ronaldo; and who knows, fellow countryman Miroslav Klose may beat him to the punch. If Thomas Mueller continues the way he has been, he is on pace to not only beat Ronaldo’s record, but absolutely demolish it. I for one believe that he will one day rule supreme. But that is why soccer is the greatest game in the world, because anything and everything can happen in between. It will interesting to see how he continues to develop, as he is only beginning his journey at becoming the next goal-scoring king.