Berlin, July 10 (DPA) Germany's Miroslav Klose has followed in the footsteps of Ronaldo, Paolo Rossi and Gerd Mueller by finishing top goalscorer at World Cup finals.

Although the Werder Bremen striker's five goals are the lowest number in 44 years to win the golden shoe award, they bring his personally tally to 10 goals in World Cups, just five behind Ronaldo, four behind Meuller and one shy of Juergen Klinsmann, Germany head coach.

"Miroslav Klose had a great season for Werder Bremen and has brought his good form into the World Cup," said Muller of the Poland-born forward. "He is really improved as a player."

Like his goals four years ago in Korea/Japan, most of Klose's strikes came early on in the tournament.

The 28-year-old scored twice in the opening match against Costa Rica, then notched another double in the third group game versus Ecuador before grabbing the all-important equaliser with 10 minutes to spare in the quarter-final with Argentina.

"He's an excellent striker and very crafty," added Paolo Rossi of the German No. 11. "He always pops up at the right moment. He is much better in the air than I was but he does have my eye for goal."

Behind Klose in the goalscoring charts were France's Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane, Argentina's Hernan Crespo and Maxi Rodriguez, Spain's David Villa and Fernando Torres, Brazil's Ronaldo and Klose's compatriot Lukas Podolski, all with three goals.

Previous golden shoe winners:

2002: Ronaldo (Brazil), 8 goals
1998: Davor Suker (Croatia), 6 goals
1994: Hristo Stoichkov/Oleg Salenko (Bulgaria/Russia), 6 goals
1990: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy), 6 goals
1986: Gary Lineker (England), 6 goals
1982: Paolo Rossi (Italy), 6 goals
1978: Mario Kempes (Argentina), 6 goals
1974: Gregorz Lato (Poland), 7 goals
1970: Gerd Mueller (Germany), 10 goals
1966: Eusebio (Portugal), 9 goals