FIFA Men's World Cup

Top 50 players at World Cup 2022, No. 20: Thomas Müller

Published Nov. 1, 2022 6:48 p.m. ET

FOX Sports soccer analyst and former USMNT midfielder Stu Holden is counting down the 50 best players participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Up next is …

Thomas Müller

Country: Germany
Rank: 20
Rank in 2018: 32
Position: Midfielder
Age: 33

Few players in Qatar will have more impressive World Cup resumes than Thomas Müller. All-time, he's scored 10 goals at the tournament — the most of any active player — and in 2014, he won the Final with Germany.

But his most recent showing at Russia 2018 was a disappointment, and if Germany are going to avoid getting knocked out in the group stage once again, the Bayern Munich star will have to bring a lot more to the table, especially with the lack of World Cup experience elsewhere on the roster.

"This is a guy that likes to play and has dubbed himself the ‘space invader’ because he finds that space between the lines," Holden said. "He can connect from the midfield, he can arrive in the box and score goals late, and it’s no coincidence that when he didn’t score in Russia, Germany didn’t advance out of the group."