Gerd Müller

For other people named Gerd Müller, see Gerd Müller (disambiguation).
Gerd Müller
Personal information
Full name Gerhard Müller
Date of birth 3 November 1945 (1945-11-03) (age 66)
Place of birth Nördlingen, Germany
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)[1]
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club Bayern Munich II (Assistant Manager)
Youth career
1960–1963 1861 Nördlingen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1963–1964 1861 Nördlingen 32 (51)
1964–1979 Bayern Munich 453 (398)
1979–1981 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 80 (40)
Total 565 (489)
National team
1966 West Germany U-23 1 (1)
1966–1974 West Germany 62 (68)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).
The title of this article contains the character ü . Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Gerd Mueller.

Gerhard "Gerd" Müller (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɛɐt ˈmʏlɐ]; born 3 November 1945 in Nördlingen) is a former German football player and one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time.

With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and the international record of 66 goals in 74 European Club games, he was one of the most successful goalscorers of his era. Müller is now 8th on the list of all time international goalscorers despite playing fewer matches than every player in the top 15. His nicknames are “Bomber der Nation” (the nation's Bomber) and “kleines dickes Müller” (short fat Müller; this name was given to him by Čik Čajkovski, his first coach at Bayern Munich. Čajkovski was Yugoslavian and got the German declension wrong.).

In 1970 Müller was elected European Footballer of the Year after a successful season at Bayern Munich and scoring 10 goals at the 1970 World Cup. Müller held the all-time goal-scoring record in the tournament with a 14-goal total, a record that stood for 32 years until it was broken by Brazil's Ronaldo against Ghana in the Round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup. In 1999, he was voted ninth place in the European player of the Century election held by the IFFHS and he was voted thirteenth in the IFFHS' "World Player of the Century" election.[2]

Contents

Career

Bayern Munich

Born in Nördlingen, Germany, Müller began his football career at the TSV 1861 Nördlingen. Müller joined FC Bayern Munich in 1964 where he teamed up with future stars Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier. The club, which would go on to become the most successful German club in history was then still in the Regionalliga Süd (Regional League South), which was one level below the Bundesliga at the time. After one season, Bayern Munich advanced to the Bundesliga and started a long string of successes. With his club, Müller amassed titles during the 60s and 70s: He won the German Championship four times, the German Cup four times, the European Champions' Cup three times, the Intercontinental Cup once, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup once. A supremely opportunistic goal-scorer, he also became German top scorer seven times and European top scorer twice. Müller scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches for Bayern Munich, almost 100 goals more than the second most successful Bundesliga scorer, Klaus Fischer. He holds the single-season Bundesliga record with 40 goals in season 1971–72. He scored 68 goals in 62 German Cup games. His record of 66 goals in 74 appearances at European Cups was just recently surpassed by Raúl González of Schalke 04.

National team

Müller scored 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany. His international career started in 1966 and ended on 7 July 1974 with the win of the World Cup at his home stadium in Munich.[3] He scored the winning goal for the 2–1 victory over the Netherlands in the final. His four goals in that tournament and his ten goals at the 1970 World Cup combined made him the all-time highest World Cup goalscorer overall at the time with 14 goals; his record stood until the 2006 tournament, coincidentally held in Germany, when it was broken by Brazilian forward Ronaldo on 27 June 2006 playing against Ghana and was equalled by his countryman Miroslav Klose in 2010. As of the end of the 2006 tournament, Ronaldo has scored 15 goals in four World Cups. Müller also participated in the 1972 European Championship, becoming top scorer with four goals (including two in the final) and winning the Championship with the German team.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers

After his career in the Bundesliga he went to the United States, where he joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1979. He played three seasons with this team, scoring 38 goals, and once reaching, but losing, the league final in 1980. He was a 2nd-team NASL All Star in 1979.

Life after football

After Müller ended his career in 1982, he fell into a slump and suffered from alcoholism. However, his former companions at Bayern Munich convinced him to go through alcohol rehabilitation. When he emerged, they gave him a job as a coach at Bayern Munich II, where he still works to this day. There is also a collection of apparel released by sporting giants Adidas under the Gerd Müller name. It is part of the adidas originals series. In July 2008, the Rieser Sportpark, in Nördlingen, where Müller had begun his career, was renamed the Gerd-Müller-Stadion in his honour.

Playing style

In his book "Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football", David Winner writes, "Müller was short, squat, awkward-looking and not notably fast; he never fit the conventional idea of a great footballer, but he had lethal acceleration over short distances, a remarkable aerial game, and uncanny goalscoring instincts. His short legs gave him a strangely low center of gravity, so he could turn quickly and with perfect balance in spaces and at speeds that would cause other players to fall over. He also had a knack of scoring in unlikely situations."

Honors

Titles with Bayern Munich

International

Personal honours

Career statistics

Club performance League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Germany League DFB-Pokal Europe Total
1963–64 1861 Nördlingen 33 46 - - 33 46
1964–65 Bayern Munich Bundesliga 26 33 - - 26 33
1965–66 33 15 6 1 - 39 16
1966–67 32 28 4 7 9 8 45 43
1967–68 34 19 4 4 8 7 46 30
1968–69 30 30 5 7 - 35 37
1969–70 33 38 3 4 2 0 38 42
1970–71 32 22 7 10 8 7 47 39
1971–72 34 40 6 5 8 5 48 50
1972–73 33 36 5 7 6 12 44 55
1973–74 34 30 4 5 10 8 48 43
1974–75 33 23 3 2 7 5 43 30
1975–76 22 23 6 7 6 5 34 35
1976–77 25 28 4 11 4 5 33 44
1977–78 33 24 3 4 6 4 42 32
1978–79 19 9 2 4 - 21 13
USA League Open Cup North America Total
1979 Fort Lauderdale Strikers NASL 27 19 - - 27 19
1980 36 16 - - 36 16
1981 17 5 - - 17 5
Total Germany 486 444 62 68 74 66 622 578
USA 80 40 - - 80 40
Career total 566 484 62 68 74 66 702 618

[4] [5]

Germany national team
Year Apps Goals
1966 1 0
1967 4 6
1968 3 2
1969 7 9
1970 12 13
1971 8 12
1972 7 13
1973 8 7
1974 12 6
Total 62 68

International goals

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first:

References

  1. ^ "Gerd Müller" (in German). fussballdaten.de. http://fussballdaten.de/spieler/muellergerhard/. Retrieved 17 December 2008. 
  2. ^ "IFFHS Century Elections". RSSSF.com – International Football Hall of Fame. http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/iffhs-century.html. Retrieved 8 October 2011. 
  3. ^ Lomas, Mark (28 May 2010). "Gerd Muller: Der Bomber". ESPN Soccernet (ESPN). http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story?id=790697&cc=5739&ver=global. Retrieved 13 September 2011. 
  4. ^ "Gerd Müller". National Football Teams. http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=17389. Retrieved 24 October 2011. 
  5. ^ "Gerhard "Gerd" Müller - Goals in International Matches". Rsssf.com. 25 March 2005. http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/mueller-intlg.html. Retrieved 24 October 2011. 

External links