Transfer Target - Stefan Kiessling

There have been a wealth of Premier League clubs rumoured to be out to secure the German striker Stefan Kiessling's signature this transfer window, but what is it that the likes of West Ham, Fulham and Liverpool see in the 28-year-old?

Well, if you look past the greasy mop-top and watch the lanky front-man play his game then you would not need to ask that question. His 13 goals in the current Bundesliga season has shot him to the top scorers charts and have helped his side Bayer Leverkusen to second in the league table, 9 points behind runaway leaders Bayern Munich.

Kiessling is a quick-thinking, clinical-finishing target man who looms at 6ft4. His ability to create space for himself before lashing the ball past opposing goalkeepers with either foot is just as good as his aerial presence, which his stats for this season show. From his 13 goals in his 18 appearances this term, 5 have been with his right foot, 4 with his left and the other 4 from his head.

Kiessling started his professional career with Nuremburg after progressing through their youth ranks, and he was soon considered one of the hottest prospects in the country when he scored 19 in his 79 games for the club.

In 2006 he jumped ship to Leverkusen and although he was a regular in the first team throughout his early years at the club, it wasn't until the 2009/10 season that his goals made people really stand up and notice him. He tallied 21 goals in his 33 Bundesliga games that season, his best goalscoring term to date.

He currently stands on 99 league goals in the German topflight and will no doubt expand on that as the season goes on, unless of course an English side manage to lure him away.

Kiessling has one of the most important decisions of his career to make this month. Does he stay in one of the fastest progressing hotbeds of football who no doubt hold the future of the game, or does he jump of the first EasyJet flight over and join the ranks of an ever-dwindling English league?

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