Stefan Kiessling is battling to reclaim a spot in the German national side.

And with his exceptional performances for Bayer Leverkusen this season, the striker is certainly doing his chances no harm at all.

Kiessling has been in inspirational form, his ten goals this season helping Leverkusen go second in the Bundesliga although leaders Bayern Munich have a handsome 11-point lead at the top.

“Our performances come as no surprise to me,” Kiessling told the Bundesliga’s official website in an interview. “They are the result of a new mentality.”

The new mentality is a result of an anomaly in the Bundesliga because Leverkusen have two coaches; Sami Hyypia and Sascha Lewandowski.

In a recent interview with Kicker magazine, Hyypia said: “Leverkusen players were developing a winner’s mentality and that was our most important job.”

The management duo were installed after the dismissal of then coach Robin Dutt towards the end of last season and Kiessling has been their trump card.

He’s more than just a target-man with his 6 feet 3 inch frame and apart from scoring goals, also helps in setting them up for the rest of his team-mates.

Kiessling joined Leverkusen in 2006 from Nuremburg and had already been ear-marked for a potentially explosive club and international career.

And although he’s been consistent at club level, joint-top scorer this season, his international career hasn’t really taken off.

Kiessling has been restricted to just six international caps, with three of those appearances coming in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

His last outing for Die Mannschaft also came there — a 3-2 victory over Uruguay in the third-place playoff.

And there are a number of experts campaigning for his recall to the national side.

“Stefan is Bayer’s poster boy. His manner, his style of play and the goals he scores are really impressive,” Leverkusen’s sporting director Rudi Voller told Germany’s Bild newspaper in October. “If he continues to perform as he is, it’ll make it increasingly hard for [Germany coach] Joachim Loew to ignore him. Stefan’s aim has to be the 2014 World Cup. He’s still too young to end his international career.”

In November, Loew sidelined Kiessling again for Germany’s friendly against the Netherlands, prompting the Leverkusen ace to take a swipe at the German coach.

The line between the two, though, remains dead.

For now, Kiessling has other things on his mind; guiding his Leverkusen side as far as he can in the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Europa League.

“I am totally content with what’s happening in Leverkusen right now,” he said ahead of Leverkusen ‘s final match before the winter break against Hamburg SV on Saturday. “We are already part of three competitions in which we can reach something.”

Kiessling still harbours hopes of a German recall and if he continues on his rich vein of form, he could well be leading Germany’s forward line in Brazil in two years time.