Biography of Gerd Müller: the “Bomber” with an incredible eye for goal

There were fewer players with a better eye for goal than Gerd Müller. The German football icon sadly passed away on Sunday, but he made a very strong mark on football history.

Müller’s first club was 1861 Nördlingen, where he was also born in 1945. In 1963, he moved up to the first team, where he immediately caught the eye. He scored 51 goals in 31 games and after one season he moved on to better things.

To the famous Bayern Munich, which at that time was not yet among the best. The Munich giant was then playing in the Regionalliga Süd, one league below the Bundesliga. Bayern moved up to the top flight after one year and gradually became the most successful club in Germany, thanks in part to Gerd Müller.

Müller did not stand out in height, he was only 176 centimetres tall, which is not much for a striker. But his acceleration was fantastic. Almost no defender could catch him, the nickname “Bomber” had one more great quality. He was absolutely unerring in his finishing.

He played almost his entire career at Bayern Munich, where he played 607 games and scored an incredible 566 goals in 15 seasons. With 365 league goals, he is still the Bundesliga’s all-time top scorer. In Munich, he won almost everything he could and broke records. In 1971/72 he scored 40 goals in the Bundesliga, his record was only broken by Robert Lewandowski at the end of last season.

But Müller didn’t just score in the club jersey. He scored 68 goals in 62 games in a West German jersey, helping to win the 1972 Euro trophy and the 1974 World Cup.

In 1972, he also set another record by scoring the most goals in a calendar year (85). This record was only broken in 2012 by Lionel Messi.

After his time at Bayern, he moved to the USA in 1979, where he played for the Lauderdale Strikers for three years. He scored 40 goals in three seasons in the NASL, and in his last one he reached the final, but failed to make the final.

Life after his career

After the end of his career in 1982, Muller did not know what to do without soccer and fell into alcohol. However, his former Bayern teammates helped him and convinced him to go to rehab. After going through the process, he was employed at Bayern Munich until 2014 as a youth coach.

Sadly, in 2015, Müller was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which he was treated for in a nursing home. On 15 August 2021, Gerd Müller passed away.

“Today is a sad, black day for Bayern and its fans. Gerd Müller was the best striker there ever was and a fair man and a personality in world football,” Bayern chairman Herbert Hainer said in a statement.

“He is one of the club’s greatest legends. His achievements are unsurpassed and will always be part of the amazing history of Bayern and German football. Gerd Müller stands as a player and a man behind Bayern and its transformation into one of the greatest clubs in the world like no other. He will always be in our hearts,” recalled Müller’s CEO and former Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Source: Wikipedia, FC Bayern Munich