Gerd Müller

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Nicknamed 'Bomber der Nation' or simply 'Der Bomber', Müller was named European Footballer of the Year in 1970. After a successful season at Bayern Munich, he scored ten goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup for West Germany where he received the Golden Boot as top goalscorer, before winning the 1970 Ballon d'Or. In 1972, he won the UEFA European Championship and was the top goalscorer, scoring two goals in the final. Two years later, he scored 4 goals in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, including the winning goal in the final. Müller held the all-time goal-scoring record in the World Cup with 14 goals for 32 years. In 1999, Müller was ranked ninth in the European Player of the Century election held by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), and he was voted 13th in the IFFHS' World Player of the Century election. In 2004, Pelé named Müller in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.

In Their Own Story

The turning point of Müller's international career arrived on 7 July 1974 at his home stadium in Munich. Facing Johan Cruyff's Netherlands, Müller scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory to claim the FIFA World Cup. Although he later had a goal wrongfully disallowed for offside in that final, his four goals throughout the tournament added to his ten from the 1970 World Cup, making him the all-time top scorer with 14 goals—a record held for 32 years until Ronaldo broke it in 2006. Just two years prior, he had been the standout at the 1972 UEFA European Championship, scoring twice in the final and finishing as the tournament's top scorer with four goals. Despite a post-tournament argument with DFB officials regarding access for players' wives, Müller retired from international duty immediately after that World Cup triumph, having already decided to leave before the final whistle.

Reader's Guide

Müller began his football career at his hometown club TSV 1861 Nördlingen youth ranks in 1958. In 1963 he was promoted to the first team and he scored 51 league goals in 31 appearances in his first season in the Bayernliga. In 1963, aged 18, Müller joined Bayern Munich, where he teamed up with future stars Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier. With his club, Müller amassed titles during the 1960s and 1970s: he won the German Championship four times, the DFB-Pokal four times, the European Cup three consecutive years (the first West German team to win it; Müller scored in the 1974 final replay and the 1975 final), the Intercontinental Cup once, and the European Cup Winners' Cup once. Müller scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches for Bayern Munich. At his peak, Müller held the single-season Bundesliga record with 40 goals in season 1971–72. After his career in the Bundesliga, Müller 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 reached, but lost, the league final in 1980. At international level with West Germany, he scored 68 goals in 62 appearances. He was Germany's all-time leading scorer for almost 40 years until surpassed by Miroslav Klose in 2014. Müller quit playing for West Germany after the 1974 FIFA World Cup triumph. After Müller ended his career in 1981, he fell into a slump and suffered from alcoholism. He held a position as a coach at Bayern Munich II from 1992 until he retired in 2014 due to health problems. On 6 October 2015, it was announced that Müller was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died on 15 August 2021 in a nursing home in Wolfratshausen, aged 75.

Did You Know?

• Müller scored 34 goals in 35 European Cup matches, a ratio of 0.97 goals per game.
• He scored 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany, averaging over a goal a game.
• Müller's 14 World Cup goals were a record between 1974 and 2006.
• He is one of six players to reach 50 international goals in under 50 appearances, doing so in 41 games.