Gerd Müller

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Gerd Müller
Muller 1974.jpg
Gerd Müller at the 1974 World Cup
Personnel
Surname Gerhard Müller
date of birth November 3, 1945
place of birth NordlingenGermany
date of death August 15, 2021
Place of death Germany
size 176 cm
position Storm
Juniors
years station
1958-1963 TSV 1861 Noerdlingen
Men's
years station Games (goals) 1
1963-1964 TSV 1861 Noerdlingen 31 0(51)
1964-1979 FC Bayern Munich 453 (398)
1979-1981 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 71 0(38)
1981-1982 Smith Brothers Lounge 42 0(33)
1982-1984 German-American Soccer Club k. A.
National team
years selection Games (goals)
1966 Germany U23 1 00(1)
1966-1974 Germany 62 0(68)
Stations as a trainer
years station
1992-2014 FC Bayern Munich Amateurs / II (assistant coach)
1 Only league games are given.

Gerhard "Gerd" Müller (born November 3, 1945 in Nördlingen ; † August 15, 2021 ) was a German football player .

With 365 goals in 427 games, Müller, known as the “bomber of the nation”, is the record scorer in the Bundesliga and is one of the best strikers of all time due to his extraordinary body control and ability to anticipate . In 1970 he was awarded the Ballon d'Or as Europe's Footballer of the Year .

As a player for FC Bayern Munich (1964 to 1979), Müller won four German championships , four times the DFB Cup , three times the European Cup , once the European Cup Winners' Cup and once the World Cup . With the German national team he was European champion in 1972 and world champion in 1974 . In the course of his career, Müller was top scorer in 18 different competitions (including seven times in the German Bundesliga).

After retiring, he worked as an assistant coach in the coaching staff of the second team at FC Bayern from 1992 to 2014 .

youth

Gerd Müller was born on November 3, 1945 in the Bavarian-Swabian town of Nördlingen . He was the fifth and youngest child of Johann Heinrich Müller and his wife Christina Karoline née Jung. At a young age he began to play football with the youth of Nördlingen on the street, before Georg Münzinger, a member of the youth management of TSV 1861 Nördlingen , wanted to guide him to his club. Due to self-doubt and his shyness, Hadde , as Müller was often called in his youth, should not have dared to join the club.

In August 1958, on Münzinger's recommendation, Müller joined the C-youth team of TSV 1861 Nördlingen, after a friend who was already active at the club had taken him to training, and already as a youth player he showed scoring qualities. In the A-youth he is said to have scored 180 out of a total of 204 goals this season during the 1962/63 season and was appointed to the youth team of the Bavarian Football Association .

The miller, who came from a humble background, began an apprenticeship as a weaver in a Nördlingen company after successfully completing elementary school at the age of 14 . When he was supposed to switch to shift work there, where he would have missed evening training every other week, he started a job as a welder at the Bremshey company .

Club career

TSV 1861 Noerdlingen

On April 27, 1963, the 17-year-old Müller made his debut for the men's team of TSV ( District League Swabia) in the game against TSG Augsburg 85 . In his first full season (1963/64), the beefy center forward had a significant share in the club's rise to the national league with 47 goals in 28 missions .

The Bundesliga club TSV 1860 Munich became aware of the striker and wanted to sign him for the coming season. But in the spring of 1964, Walter Fembeck , managing director of FC Bayern Munich , came to the Müller's house just an hour before his colleague from the sixties to offer him a contract. Müller, who figured he had little chance of getting a regular place at TSV 1860, finally gave Bayern the contract. In the apartment of club president Wilhelm Neudecker he signed a four-year contract on July 10, 1964 and moved to Bayern Munich for the transfer fee of  DM 4,400. At the same time, Müller was given a job as a part-time worker at a Munich furniture dealer.

FC Bayern Munich

Gerd Müller (1967) signing soccer balls; in the background Franz Beckenbauer and Werner Olk
Gerd Müller, circa 1973

Bayern coach Zlatko Čajkovski initially showed little enthusiasm for the young, stocky striker from the Swabian province: “What should I do with this boy, this figure, impossible” and “What should I do with a weightlifter?” Therefore, Müller initially did not consider it the squad of the team that was confidently aiming for promotion from the Regionalliga Süd to the Bundesliga . It was only under pressure from the president that the new signing was set up on October 18, 1964 in the game at Freiburg FC and scored a goal in the 11-2 victory. Then Müller made the leap into the regular formation as a half- forward and with players such as Werner Olk , Rainer Ohlhauser , Dieter Brenninger , Franz Beckenbauer or Sepp Maier , Bayern managed to rise to the Bundesliga with confidence at the end of the season . Gerd Müller got 33 hits and 6 more hits in the promotion round.

On August 14, 1965 , Müller played his first Bundesliga game (0-1 against 1860 Munich) and scored 14 goals in 33 appearances in his premier Bundesliga season. Bayern finished third in the table at the end of the season and with their victory in the DFB Cup ( 4-2 victory over Meidericher SV ) they won their first title in nine years. A special feature for Müller in his first league season was also a goalkeeping assignment. In the away game against Hamburger SV on October 20, 1965, he replaced the injured goalkeeper Sepp Maier for a short time . In the 1966/67 season Müller managed the final breakthrough: With 28 goals he was first Bundesliga top scorer (with Lothar Emmerich ) and was awarded as "Player of the Year." By winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1967 won the Bavarians their first international title. Parallel to Müller's personal development, FC Bayern managed to rise to the top team under coach Branko Zebec at the end of the 1960s, which was crowned by winning the double of the championship and cup victory in 1968/69 . Müller, who had lost seven kilos of body weight due to Zebec's tough fitness training, was the outstanding player and he was again top scorer (30 games / 30 goals) and for the second time "Footballer of the Year". In the cup final , he scored both goals for a 2-1 win over FC Schalke 04 .

The engagement of Udo Lattek as the new coach at the beginning of the 1970s heralded the most successful era in the history of FC Bayern. After winning the DFB Cup in 1971 , the team won three championships in a row between 1972 and 1974 . Despite talented newcomers such as Uli Hoeneß , Paul Breitner and Rainer Zobel , the Maier-Beckenbauer-Müller axis was the central structure of the successful team. Gerd Müller was a world-class striker who scored 40 Bundesliga goals in the 1971/72 season, a record that had existed for 49 years and was only outbid by one goal in the 2020/21 season by Robert Lewandowski , also in the service of FC Bayern Munich . In July 1973, FC Barcelona tried to sign Gerd Müller. The club offered FC Bayern a three million mark transfer fee and the player the same amount as a salary. The move failed, however, because the DFB threatened Gerd Müller with a ban for the 1974 World Cup. Thereupon Gerd Müller decided not to change, but wrote in an open letter: “I respect the decision of the DFB. My personal opinion on this is that, in accordance with the [sic!] German Basic Law, I take the position that every person in the Federal Republic has the right to choose a profession freely. ”But his whereabouts should not harm him. The national title hat-trick was followed by the triple win of the European Cup ( 1974 , 1975 , 1976 ) and the 1976 World Cup .

But after thirteen title wins in ten years, the heyday of FC Bayern was drawing to a close at the end of the 1970s. You no longer had the top team of previous years and slipped into the midfield of the Bundesliga. After Beckenbauer left for the USA , before the start of the 1977/78 season , Müller was his successor as Bayern captain and, with 24 goals, top scorer for the seventh time (together with Dieter Müller ), but the "bomber of the nation" always had a slipped disc struggling with injury problems again. In previous years, injuries had set him back several times, including a broken hand in 1968, a broken fibula in 1973 and a thigh muscle tear in 1975.

On February 3, 1979 , Gerd Müller was substituted for the first time in his career for sporting reasons during the 1: 2 away defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt , which led to the final falling out with coach Pál Csernai . In the end, however, the substitution was not decisive, said Müller in February 1979, "all the other things weigh much more heavily - and everything together was just too much for me," he said. Müller, who had already announced his departure to the board at the end of the season, asked in writing to terminate his contract and announced the end of his career. On February 25, the contract between the player and the club was terminated by mutual agreement. The game against Borussia Dortmund (4-0) on February 10, 1979 was Müller's last Bundesliga game. His last goal was on November 18, 1978, when he lost 2-1 to 1. FC Kaiserslautern .

It was not until September 20, 1983, that a farewell match between FC Bayern and the German national team was organized in the Munich Olympic Stadium .

The move to Florida

After Müller had strictly refused to move to the United States in the previous month ("I said earlier that I would never go to the United States - and that has not changed either.") And confirmed the intention to end his career , In March 1979 he signed a well-paid contract with a term of two and a half years with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers from the North American professional league NASL , in which numerous European and South American veteran stars played in the late 1970s (including Pelé , Franz Beckenbauer, George Best , Giorgio Chinaglia , Teófilo Cubillas , Carlos Alberto ). In addition to a salary of US $ 800,000 at the time (inflation-adjusted 2020: approx. US $ 2.85 million), the contract also included an apartment and a car provided by the football franchise. In addition, there was also an advertising contract with the New York agency People and Properties, Inc. , which was only to come into force when Müller was able to produce a certain number of goals. The move to the Strikers was prepared by the New York lawyer and management consultant Detlef G. Lehnhardt , who had business contacts in Munich; the negotiations were concluded in January 1979. Initial contacts in the United States were made by Franz Beckenbauer and his manager Robert Schwan , after Müller had expressed his displeasure with Beckenbauer at the beginning of 1979 about his situation at Bayern. After the shirt number 9 at Bayern Munich and the number 13 in the national team, Müller received the number 15 in Fort Lauderdale , but was presented with the number 9 on the first official press photos.

Based on an agreement with the franchise, Müller did not start the NASL 1979 game operation, which began in March 1979 , but was only supposed to make his debut in the top soccer league in North America at the end of April. Before leaving for Florida , Müller kept himself fit with individual training and twice a week with team training at the amateur club MTV Munich 1879 , of which he was also a member of the tennis department. Without any knowledge of English - his wife Uschi had learned English at the Berlitz language school in Munich in the weeks before his departure - Müller then started his trip to the United States with his wife. First of all - on a three-week tour of FC Bayern Munich in the summer of 1966 - he had been to the United States before that. During this time, the German media scoffed at the change of the former bomber to the USA. The couple then lived in a hotel for the first few weeks in Florida before the guaranteed house with a value of 30,000 US dollars (adjusted for inflation in 2020: around 107,000 US dollars) was ready for occupancy. Initially, the two were accompanied by three tabloid reporters from Munich ( Raimund Hinko , Uewe Fajga , Bernd Hildebrandt ), who were supposed to report on Müller's first steps in the new country in their home country. From Beau Rogers , the general manager of the franchise, Müller was described as "exactly the man the Fort Lauderdale Strikers need to win the championship", which he also publicly exerted a certain pressure on the 33-year-old striker.

Most attacking player of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers

In the team of Elizabeth Lyle Robbie , the sole owner of the franchise and wife of Joe Robbie , the then owner of the Miami Dolphins from the National Football League , Müller appeared alongside numerous other star players. Especially with the Northern Irishman George Best , whose jealousy and envy of Müller was reported in the German media at the time, the bomber received an intimate enemy within the team. Müller played his first competitive game under the English coach Ron Newman , who this year - now at the age of 45 - should use himself again in the league, on April 28, 1979 in a 1: 2 defeat against the Tampa Bay Rowdies in Lockhart Stadium . After he had not met in the subsequent 2-1 defeat against Philadelphia Fury a week later, Müller was only able to register as a goalscorer in his third league appearance, in a 4-0 home win over Toronto Blizzard on May 12, 1979 . During the first training sessions in Florida, he had told the coach who wanted him to play over the wings through the interpreter Uli Köhler from Bayerischer Rundfunk that he had never played over the wings in his career so far, whereupon Newman used him exclusively as a center forward. However , he still had to carry out the Cooper test required by the coach , which Müller also refused.

After the tactics were changed in favor of Müller after a few completed games - instead of the high balls they played flatter at Müller's request - he now appeared more often as a goal scorer. In his sixth game, a 6-1 away win over the Edmonton Drillers , he scored a hat trick. For a header in the 3-2 victory over the Tulsa Roughnecks on June 20, 1979, he was awarded the "Goal of the Week" award. Within a very short time, Müller, who only joined the game later, had made it to the top of the list of goalscorers. At the end of the game year, however, it was not enough for the title of top scorer; behind Oscar Fabbiani from the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Giorgio Chinaglia from New York Cosmos , he was in third place in the end. With 19 goals and 17 assists in 25 championship appearances, he had 55 points scorer. At the end of the game year he was named the Strikers' best player and received a moped and a nearly life-size trophy, which is still in the United States today. Due to a second place in the Eastern Division of the American Conference , he had qualified with the Strikers for the season-closing play-offs, but was eliminated in these already in the Conference Quarterfinals with a total of 0: 3 against Chicago Sting . In the end, Müller made it into the NASL All-Stars Second Team . When the NASL was not playing, Müller returned to Munich for half a year in the fall of 1979 and trained with the TSV 1860 Munich team . A planned transfer to TSV failed due to the financial demands on the part of the US franchise.

Career finale in Fort Lauderdale

To keep fit while training, Müller tried racquetball ; According to Werner-Johannes Müller from kicker , he played this “like a madman, really excessively”. For the kicker reporter it was also “the last flare-up of his [note: Gerd Müller] real ambition”. When Cor van der Hart took over from Newman in January 1980 , Müller was still employed as a regular in the attack row in 1980 by the same person who announced at the beginning that he also did not speak English . After another second place in the Eastern Division of the American Conference , Müller had again qualified for the season-closing play-offs at the end of regular time with the Strikers. By this time, Müller had made 14 hits and 8 assists in 29 league games. With his 14 goals, he had as many hits as his strike partner Teófilo Cubillas. After narrowly progressing against California Surf in the Conference Quarterfinals , the Edmonton Drillers in the Conference Semifinals and the San Diego Sockers in the Conference Championships , he made it into the decisive Soccer Bowl '80 with the franchise from South Florida . In the game against New York Cosmos, von der Hart sent him onto the field from the start, but had to replace the ailing Müller with Koos Waslander after just 40 minutes . The encounter against the New York City franchise ended in a 3-0 defeat for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. In total, the nation's former bomber had 36 missions and 16 goals in this calendar year. When he returned to Munich in the fall of 1980, Müller complained about conditions in US football. He had been struggling with intervertebral disc problems for the entire season , and was particularly dissatisfied with the inadequate medical care - the franchise did not employ a masseur. During examinations at home, a partial cartilage of Müller's muscles was found. In his spare time at NASL, the striker stayed in Munich, where he appeared for the old men of FC Bayern Munich, among others.

When Eckhard Krautzun , known as Wandervogel , who had recently coached league rival Houston Hurricane, took over as coach, Müller's success time in Fort Lauderdale ended, which he later often reported in the media. He described Krautzun, who is almost five years his senior, as the worst coach he has ever had. Mainly due to the scope of training - Krautzun let the team train at temperatures between 30 and 40 degrees like in the Bundesliga, which however did not suit Müller - the former Bayern star could not get along with the new coach. Due to the fear of flying , which Müller had always had and which had not subsided even during the many flights to the league games within North America, he did not appear as often in the North American Soccer League in 1981 . Krautzun partially approved of this and often left him back in Florida , especially when playing on the west coast . However, when he forced Müller one day to fly with him to Vancouver , where he would not be used in the game against the Vancouver Whitecaps and only let him sit in the stands, the relationship between the two worsened even more.

With the signing of Branko Šegota , the Krautzun, who at the time was also the Strikers' team operation manager in addition to his work as a coach, recruited from the major indoor soccer league franchise New York Arrows , the decline of Müller in the United States began . Krautzun used the native Croat , who was already a Canadian national player and was the top scorer of the Major Indoor Soccer League in the previous season, mostly instead of the German. After the stakes became less and less, Müller finally became a political issue after his wife had requested a meeting through a lawyer. After this had run in favor of the coaching staff, Müller, who was used to being used almost unconditionally, had to fight for his post. Especially in home games, Krautzun continued to rely on Bayern, who only made 17 appearances and five goals over the entire year. With a 1: 2 away defeat against the Jacksonville Tea Men on August 11, 1981, Gerd Müller ended his professional career at the age of 36. The Strikers had made it into the play-offs again this year and were defeated in these in the semifinals against New York Cosmos; Müller was no longer in action in any of these games. He then played his last game for the Florida franchise on a two-week friendly tour in Europe when he appeared in a 0-0 draw against Olympiacos Piraeus .

National team

Gerd Müller during the 1974 World Cup final

His career in the senior national team began on October 12, 1966 in Ankara against Turkey . In his second A international match on April 8, 1967 in Dortmund against Albania , he scored the first 4 of his 68 goals in the national team.

The first highlight of his international career was participation in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. He scored seven goals in the preliminary round. In the quarterfinals he scored the winning goal to 3-2 against England . In the subsequent " match of the century ", the semi-final against Italy , he scored two goals in extra time (final score 3: 4). When Müller pushed his way between an Italian defender and the goalkeeper at an apparently cleared corner and poked the ball into the goal, TV reporter Ernst Huberty commented on this with the words: "If you've ever seen a real Müller goal, then now." Müller was the top scorer at this tournament with ten goals and in the same year was the first German to be voted Europe's footballer of the year .

In 1972 he became European champion with the DFB selection . At this tournament he was again top scorer with four goals.

Wolfgang Overath and Gerd Müller (right) after the 1974 victory

His international career ended on July 7, 1974 when he won the World Cup at his home stadium in Munich, where he scored the winning goal to 2-1 in the 43rd minute of the final against the Netherlands .

After the 1974 World Cup, Müller announced his retirement from the national team at the age of only 28 after 62 international matches. Some sources put his resignation in connection with his comments about his anger at the DFB. In Müller's opinion, the DFB would have assigned the players' women bad seats in the stadiums and not invited them to the banquet after the World Cup title they had won. In addition, the DFB offered premiums that were too low (“laughable”) for a World Cup success. However, Müller insists that his decision to resign had already been made a quarter of a year before the World Cup and that he had informed coach Helmut Schön of this decision three days before the World Cup final and that private reasons were decisive for his decision. He wanted to spend more time with his wife and his then three-year-old daughter Nicole. Schön asked him to wait until after the final to make the announcement. Many years later he stated in an interview that he was almost never home. When he got home, his little daughter asked: "Is the uncle back today?"

In mid-April 1976, after Müller had just scored three important goals for Bayern (2-0 in the European Cup against Real Madrid and 1-0 in the championship against HSV), there were discussions about his return to the national team, but he declined away.

Style of play

Müller's nickname as the "bomber of the nation" hardly corresponded to his style of play. Rather, he was a classic penalty area striker who did not live from a powerful shot, but from his unpredictable sophistication. His trademark was the quick rotation in the tightest of spaces, which his relatively short legs (78 cm) and the associated "low center of gravity" made possible. If he had created the necessary space for himself, the surprising goal closure followed even from the most unfavorable positions. If Müller had an opportunity, he didn't think twice and looked for the direct route to the end of the goal. Typical were his good instinct for game situations, his quick reactions and his ability to score goals even from seemingly impossible positions: from turning, with his back to the goal, while running, lying down, standing and falling, with his foot, with the head, the knee and sometimes even the buttocks. This inimitable way of scoring goals is what the journalists called "millers". His “most important goal”, the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final in Munich, is exemplary .

Due to this unpredictable style of play, Müller presented the opposing defenders with an almost insoluble problem. Neither man nor space helped against his turns, his ability to react and his intuition .

“Müller was short, stocky, looked awkward and was not particularly quick; he never fit into the traditional notion of a great footballer. But he had deadly close-range acceleration, a remarkable header game, and an uncanny scoring instinct. Its short legs gave it a peculiarly low center of gravity. This allowed him to spin quickly and with perfect balance, in spaces and at speeds where other players would fall. He also had the gift of scoring goals in unusual situations. "

- David Winner

"Whether lying down or sitting, standing or running, with both feet and thighs, the knee, the buttocks or even with the stomach: There was simply no situation that Gerd Müller would not have made a goal out of."

- Frank Menke

Next life

Gerd Müller (2006)

After finishing his professional career, Müller stayed with his family in Florida . He subsequently joined the Smith Brothers Lounge amateur team . In this he continued to appear as a dangerous goal player and scored 33 goals in 42 championship games by 1982. As early as November 1981, together with a German couple who had been friends for decades, he took over a steakhouse called The Ambry in Fort Lauderdale , which was renamed Gerd Mueller's Ambry , but no longer exists under the original name. The restaurant initially lived mainly from German visitors, while the US customers stayed away. Müller felt uncomfortable in his role as a prominent host and became increasingly addicted to alcohol.

Parallel to his entrepreneurial career, he continued to play football at the amateur level and sometimes appeared with other Germans at the German-American Soccer Club , a club from Hollywood , Florida, which played in the Golden Coast League . During this time, German leisure teams with former professionals often came to Florida, whereby Müller often played for these teams and against the German-American Soccer Club . In his two years with the club he was once a Golden Coast League champion. He was also active in hobby teams and so-called counter teams.

In April 1984 the family returned to Munich. The befriended couple stayed in Florida and continue to run The Ambry - Gerd Müller's name has been deleted over the years - as a family business today (as of 2019). Inside the restaurant, numerous photos and pennants from Müller's private collection as well as a golden shoe displayed on the counter remind of the nation's former bomber. In addition, a bar team still exists today (as of 2019) called The Gerd Müller Ambry Soccer Team . Back in Germany, Müller's alcohol addiction and personal problems increased. At the urging of old friends and teammates like Uli Hoeness and Franz Beckenbauer Müller began in November 1991 for addiction and received after its successful completion in January 1992, a job at Bayern Munich. There he worked as a striker and goalkeeper coach in the staff of the second team under Hermann Gerland and Mehmet Scholl .

Mueller suffered since the early 2010s due to Alzheimer's disease to dementia . He made his last public appearance in 2013 on the occasion of the presentation of the SPORT-BILD Award for his life's work, but without actually taking the floor. From autumn 2014 he was no longer able to work as an assistant coach. In October 2015, shortly before Müller's 70th birthday, FC Bayern Munich made the disease public and announced that Müller had been receiving professional care since the beginning of the year. During this time he was already living in a nursing home. Gerd Müller died on August 15, 2021 at the age of 75.

Private

In October 1965 he met his future wife Ursula ("Uschi") Ebenböck, the daughter of a civil engineer and a stationery dealer, while drinking coffee in a Tchibo branch at Munich's Ostbahnhof . At that time she was 16 years old and Müller celebrated his 20th birthday shortly afterwards. The couple married in 1967, with his wife also appearing as his manager, especially in his early days at FC Bayern Munich. Their daughter was born in 1971; through her he also had his only grandson.

Müller, whose parents barely managed to stay afloat as a driver and cleaning lady, often only remained the poorly educated man from Nördlingen who grew up in poor circumstances when he graduated from elementary school in the eyes of many functionaries and fellow players. He “felt the rejection and arrogance that met him from parts of the team, and he suffered from it,” writes the historian Hans Woller in his biography Gerd Müller - or how the money got into football . "Nobody came from so far below, hardly anyone was from the province so obvious."

Statistics and records

In the national team

Gerd Müller scored 68 goals in 62 international matches (a rate of 1.097, which was only just exceeded by Sándor Kocsis in a comparable number of games ). Only in 24 of his 62 international matches did he not score a goal. From 1972 to 2014 he was the most successful goalscorer in the German national team . On September 6, 2013, Miroslav Klose drew level with Müller, on June 6, 2014, he beat the joint record with his 69th international goal, but he needed 132 games for it.

Besides Edmund Conen, Müller is the only German who scored a classic hat trick in a world championship game. In two other international games he achieved hat tricks, including four goals in a row between the 49th and 65th minute in the game against the Soviet Union on May 26, 1972. Overall, he scored three goals in four games and four in another four games. This makes him the German player who most often managed to score at least three goals in a game . Müller was the first to score four goals in an international match almost 25 years after Ernst Willimowski's last four-pack ; after his fourth and final four-pack, it took almost 32 years again until Michael Ballack, another German player, scored four goals in an international match.

Gerd Müller with Franz Beckenbauer and trainer Helmut Schön after winning the 1974 World Cup

He has scored 14 goals in two World Cup appearances, in Mexico (1970, 10 goals) and Germany (1974, 4 goals) and was ranked first in the all-time World Cup goalscorer list for 32 years. At the 2006 World Cup in Germany , he was replaced by the Brazilian Ronaldo, who scored a total of 15 goals in four world championships (three played). At the 2010 World Cup, his record was set by Miroslav Klose, the current record holder, in the quarter-finals against Argentina and exceeded in the 2014 World Cup in his fourth participation. Only Just Fontaine achieved better odds than Gerd Müller at the 1958 World Cup with 13 goals and Sándor Kocsis at the 1954 World Cup with eleven goals. After 1970, no player was able to score more than 8 goals in a World Cup tournament, although from 1974 the top four teams had to play seven instead of six games.

At European Championships, Müller scored 16 goals (in twelve games, including qualifying rounds). If you only count the goals in the finals, Müller is not to be found among the best, as the European Championship finals up to and including 1976 consisted only of semi-finals and finals.

As a club player internationally

In European club competitions, he scored 69 goals in 77 games, leading the rankings for decades. He scored 35 goals in the national championship competition, in which he had the best of the top 12 goalscorers with a rate of 1.0, 20 in the cup winners competition, 7 in the trade fair cup , 4 in the UEFA Cup , 3 in the Supercup .

Gerd Müller was named the best goalscorer of all European leagues in 1970 with 38 goals and in 1972 with 40 goals and received the Soulier d'Or , the Golden Shoe . In contrast to the phase from 1996/97 until today, in which the top scorer from stronger leagues are preferred by multiplying by a factor of 2 or 1.5, Müller actually scored the most goals of all players in Europe at that time. He was also the top scorer in the European Cup four times, which was a record until the introduction of the Champions League .

As a club player nationally

Gerd Müller is considered to be the most successful striker in German football history to date . However, Erwin Helmchen was more successful with 982 goals in 575 competitive games than Müller, who scored 735 goals in 795 competitive games. He scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games (all for FC Bayern Munich ) and is the top scorer in the Bundesliga with seven titles . He succeeded as the first (and for a long time only) to be top scorer in three consecutive seasons (1971/72 to 1973/74); Only Robert Lewandowski was four times (in the 2017/18 to 2020/21 seasons) the most successful striker and at the same time the sole record scorer. From 1966/67 to 1977/78 Gerd Müller was among the top three scorers in the Bundesliga for twelve consecutive seasons, scoring at least 20 goals each time. Gerd Müller also holds the Bundesliga record for the highest average of goals scored per season by a clear margin. In his 14 Bundesliga seasons, he scored an average of 26.07 goals per season.

Until 2021 he held the sole record within a Bundesliga season with 40 goals (1971/72). In the 2020/21 season, Robert Lewandowski tied with 40 goals - one matchday before the end - before Lewandowski became the new record holder with the 41st goal on the last matchday. In addition, Müller holds the third best mark (38 goals in 1969/70). Müller scored at least 30 goals in five seasons. He managed in five seasons (1969/70, 1971/72, 1972/73, 1975/76, 1976/77) to score more goals than to complete games.

From September 27, 1969 to March 3, 1970 Gerd Müller scored 23 goals in 16 consecutive Bundesliga games. The goal sequence was as follows: 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1. (The games were not in the sequence of the game days, there Game postponements and injury breaks must be taken into account.)

Another, but rather negative, record of Müller is the total of twelve missed penalties in his Bundesliga career. No other Bundesliga player has missed more penalties so far. With 51 converted penalties, Müller is also the player with the second most penalty goals in the Bundesliga.

In the DFB Cup, Gerd Müller scored 78 goals in 62 games, which is also a record. In total, Gerd Müller scored 1455 documented goals in 1204 games (1.21 goals / game) in competitive and friendly matches.

In the 1972 calendar year, Müller scored 85 goals in 60 competitive games (1.42 goals per game). The goal mark was exceeded in 2012 by Lionel Messi at FC Barcelona (91 goals in 69 competitive games, 1.32 goals per game).

Overview

society league season league DFB Cup European Cup Other total
Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates Games Gates
TSV 1861 Noerdlingen District League 1962/63 3 4th - - - - - - 3 4th
1963/64 28 47 - - - - - - 28 47
total 31 51 - - - - - - 31 51
FC Bayern Munich Regional league south 1964/65 26th 33 - - - - 8th 8th 34 41
Bundesliga 1965/66 33 14th 6th 1 - - - - 39 15th
1966/67 32 28 4th 7th 9 8th - - 45 43
1967/68 34 20th 4th 4th 8th 7th - - 46 31
1968/69 30th 30th 5 7th - - - - 35 37
1969/70 33 38 1 3 2 0 - - 36 41
1970/71 32 22nd 9 11 8th 7th - - 49 40
1971/72 34 40 6th 5 8th 5 - - 48 50
1972/73 33 36 5 7th 6th 12th 5 12th 49 67
1973/74 34 30th 4th 5 10 9 - - 48 44
1974/75 33 23 3 2 7th 5 - - 43 30th
1975/76 22nd 23 6th 7th 7th 5 - - 35 35
1976/77 25th 28 4th 11 6th 8th 2 1 37 48
1977/78 33 24 3 4th 6th 4th - - 42 32
1978/79 19th 9 2 4th - - - - 21 12th
total 453 398 62 78 77 69 15th 21 607 567
Fort Lauderdale Strikers NASL 1979 25th 19th - - - - - - 25th 19th
1980 29 14th - - - - 7th 2 38 16
1981 17th 5 - - - - - - 17th 5
total 71 38 - - - - 7th 2 80 40
Career total 555 487 62 78 77 69 22nd 23 718 658
National team
year Games Gates
1966 1 0
1967 4th 6th
1968 3 2
1969 7th 9
1970 12th 13
1971 8th 12th
1972 7th 12th
1973 8th 7th
1974 12th 7th
total 62 68

Titles and awards

National team

society

Personal

Others

  • Gerd Müller got involved in the team of the Augsburg benefit football team Datschiburger Kickers , which is committed to fundraising for charitable purposes.
  • With the song Then makes it boom , Müller was active as a singer in 1969.
  • In 1967 Müller (together with coach Čajkovski and Sepp Maier ) played a supporting role in the film When Ludwig moves into the maneuver .
  • The Brazilian soccer player Luís Antônio Corrêa da Costa from FC São Paulo , who among other things also became soccer world champion and world cup winner, gave himself the stage name Müller, including umlaut, based on Gerd Müller .
  • In the 1970s, the winged word “müllern” came up. In the football song of the Bavarian singer-songwriter Fredl Fesl from 1976, it literally says: “Suddenly there is a mess in front of the box, the people are shouting Uwe , it seems to me. But the miller just missed because he wasn't meant. "
  • Between 2010 and 2014, Gerd Müller again advertised Müller-Milch , together with national player Thomas Müller . As early as the 1970s, the Müller company used the same name to advertise buttermilk.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Gerd Müller  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Hans Böller: Gentle bomber and quiet genius. In: genios.de. Nürnberger Nachrichten, November 3, 2010, accessed on August 17, 2021 (for a fee).
  2. a b Gerd Müller - The beginnings and the change to FC Bayern . In: bundesliga.com. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  3. Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber. ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 35.
  4. a b c Gerd Müller - "Bomber of the Nation" wrote records for eternity. In: fifa.com. FIFA , archived from the original on August 22, 2012 ; accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  5. ^ Mike Szymanski: 180 goals this season. The gunner from Nördlingen. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 19, 2010, accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  6. football. In: tsv1861-noerdlingen.de. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014 ; accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  7. kicker : Legends & Idols, Gerd Müller. P. 18.
  8. The obligation of Gerd Müller. In: bundesliga.de. March 25, 2014, archived from the original on 20160304 ; accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  9. Ralf Grengel, Rafael Jockenhöfer: 100 years of FC Bayern Munich ... and a few more titles. powerplay-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-9804611-3-0 , p. 120.
  10. Countless titles and goals: Gerd Müller's career. In: kicker.de. August 15, 2021, accessed on August 17, 2021 (German).
  11. ^ Broder-Jürgen Trede: Short-leg bomber Gerd Müller. How the striker shone as a goalkeeper. In: spiegel.de. November 3, 2015, accessed August 17, 2021.
  12. a b Alex Raack: "... and then the ball was in". In: spiegel.de. July 12, 2018, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  13. Inglorious end of glorious days. (PDF; 1.9 MB) In: abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt, February 15, 1979, accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  14. a b I'm at the end of my nerve. (PDF; 1.8 MB) In: abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt, February 16, 1979, accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  15. Müller: Away from Bavaria - off to the USA. (PDF; 1.8 MB) In: abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt, February 14, 1979, accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  16. a b c d e Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 149 .
  17. a b c d e Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 150 .
  18. Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 (photos).
  19. a b c d Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 151 .
  20. a b c d Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 152 .
  21. a b c Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 153 .
  22. a b Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 155 .
  23. a b c d Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 156 .
  24. a b c Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 157 .
  25. ^ Claudius Mayer: History of a traditional club - TSV Munich from 1860. Extended 3rd edition, Gotteswinter Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 190.
  26. a b c d Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 158 .
  27. a b c d e f g h Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 159 .
  28. a b c d e f g Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 160 .
  29. a b c d e f Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 161 .
  30. Scene with original commentary. In: Youtube.com. Video no longer available.
  31. World Cup 1974 : Winning the title in your own country, part 10. In: DFB.de. March 12, 2010, accessed August 17, 2021.
  32. ^ "Gerd Müller: Never in the team again" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 20, 1976, p. 11 ( The website of the Arbeiterzeitung is currently being redesigned. The linked pages are therefore not available. - Digitized version).
  33. Müller's winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final. In: YouTube .com. English, accessed August 17, 2021.
  34. Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football (Bloomsbury, 2000).
  35. ^ Frank Menke: Gerd Müller. The peat factory. In: sportschau.de. Retrieved August 17, 2021 .
  36. a b c d Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 163 .
  37. a b c d e Hardly anyone in Gerd Müller's restaurant knows him. In: welt.de. May 28, 2013, accessed August 17, 2021.
  38. Patrick Strasser: Steakhouse in the USA: On Gerd Müller's footsteps in Florida. In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de. April 28, 2019, accessed August 17, 2021.
  39. a b c Gerhard Hölscher played with the nation's bomber in Florida. In: HNA.de. June 27, 2013, accessed August 17, 2021.
  40. Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 164 .
  41. a b c Udo Muras, Patrick Strasser: Gerd Müller. The nation's bomber . Riva Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86883-700-1 , p. 165 .
  42. Sabrina Schmid: Restaurant The Ambry: As a guest with friends. In: floridasunmagazine.com. October 3, 2016, accessed August 17, 2021.
  43. Gerd Müller: "I couldn't have done it alone". In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de. November 13, 2009, accessed August 17, 2021.
  44. Udo Muras: Gerd Müller - The nation suffers with its bomber. In: welt.de. July 20, 2011, accessed August 17, 2021.
  45. The greatest striker legend died in a nursing home. Gerd Müller († 75) had not eaten for 15 days. In: bild.de. August 15, 2021, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  46. Gerd Müller turns 70. In: fcbayern.com. Bayern Munich, October 6, 2015, accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  47. FC Bayern mourns Gerd Müller. In: fcbayern.com. August 15, 2021, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  48. a b c Robert Milde: Lust and frustration with the hometown. In: fupa.net. November 3, 2015, accessed August 17, 2021.
  49. Reinhard Franke: "You have a beautiful stadium, Gerd". In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de. July 20, 2008, accessed August 17, 2021.
  50. Nils Markwardt: You don't belong! In: zeit.de. February 15, 2021, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  51. ^ Players' Records of Goals and Matches in European Cups. In: rsssf.com. The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. December 31, 2009, accessed August 17, 2021.
  52. ^ Golden Boot ("Soulier d'Or") Awards. In: rsssf.com. The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. August 19, 2020, accessed August 17, 2021.
  53. Bundesliga goal machines in series, part 3. In: bluemeranterquacksalber.blogspot.de. May 1, 2017, accessed August 17, 2021.
  54. Note in: RevierSport 78/2012. P. 54.
  55. Messi breaks Gerd Müller's goal record. In: Spiegel.de. December 9, 2012, accessed August 17, 2021.
  56. Mourinho demotes Casillas - Messi celebrates. In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de. December 23, 2012, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  57. ^ Richard Fitzpatrick: 91 Goals in 69 Games: Revisiting Leo Messi's Incredible 2012. In: bleacherreport.com. December 22, 2017, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  58. FIFA Order of Merit Holders. (PDF; 154 kB) List of FIFA Order of Merit holders. In: FIFA.com. Retrieved August 17, 2021 .
  59. a b Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln : ARD Sportschau - Goal of the Month - Search results for Gerd Müller. (No longer available online.) In: sportschau.de. Formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 18, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www1.sportschau.de
  60. Sport Award 2013: Sport Bild honors Bavaria, Matthäus and Gerd Müller . In: welt.de. August 12, 2013, accessed August 17, 2021.
  61. SPORT BILD Award 2013: All award winners, all stars. In: bild.de. August 12, 2013, accessed August 17, 2021 .
  62. Jump up ↑ Football Hall of Fame - Eleven football legends and a coach icon. In: fr.de. Frankfurter Rundschau, November 23, 2018, archived from the original on November 23, 2018 ; accessed on August 17, 2021 .
  63. Gerd Müller - Then It Boom. In: discogs.com. Accessed August 17, 2021 .
  64. Thomas and Gerd Müller: Their milk advertising is so funny. In: tz .de. October 18, 2010, accessed August 17, 2021.
  65. Gerd Müller: old Müller milk commercial. In: YouTube.com. Retrieved August 17, 2021.