Position: Forward
Born: 02.03.82
Club: Schalke 04

Kevin Kuranyi will lead the line for the World Cup hosts this summer and will hope his decision to choose to play for Germany will bring him the highest prize.

Vfb Stuttgart signed Kuranyi - Brazilian by birth - when he was 14, taking advantage of his German nationality, but the striker also qualified to play for Hungary and Panama.

His breakthrough season came in 2002/2003 when he scored 15 goals and was the top German goalscorer in the Bundesliga.

The next season he helped Stuttgart to the Champions League quarter-finals and won a place in Germany's Euro 2004 squad.

He was deployed mainly as a lone striker in that tournament, but made little impact as Germany caught the first plane home.

Kuranyi moved to Schalke in 2005 following Stuttgart's failure to qualify for the Champions League but this season the Gelsenkirchen club failed to get past the group stage of the competition.

A strong header of the ball, Kuranyi is dominant in the air and is also deceptively fast and skilful given his lanky frame.

• 1 Jens Lehmann
• 21 Christoph Metzelder
• 20 Lukas Podolski
• 19 Bernd Schneider
• Christian Schulz
• 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger
• Christian Worns