German international and Stuttgart forward Mario Gomez (pictured) and Wofsburg’s Brazilian striker Grafite have all broken into the World Top 23 rating. Gomez’s hat-trick helped Stuttgart trash FC Koln (3:0), while Grafite had a double in Wofsburg’s 2:1 victory over Bayer.
Grafite scored his first from the penalty spot and added the second with 5 minutes remaining. The Brazilian earned more than 20 rating points, boosting his overall rating to 195.37. But he will have a hard time breaking into the 200-point league: to do so, he needs to earn in the next game the more than the 40.38 rating points he added to his tally on March 13, when Wolfsburg beat Shalke 04 (4:3). Grafite had a hat-trick in that game.
Gomez also earned 40 rating points with his hat-trick against Koln. He now has 196.81 points and tops the rating among German players.
Wolfsburg retains the lead in the Bundesliga with 57 points in 28 games. Bayern Munich trails by 3 points. Bayern won 1:0 against Arminia Bielefeld through a goal from Italian striker Luca Toni.