Müller, Gerd

Gerd Müller, byname of Gerhard Müller, also called Der Bomber, (born November 3, 1945, Nördlingen, Germany—died August 15, 2021), German professional football (soccer) player who was one of the greatest goal scorers of all time. He netted 68 goals in 62 career international matches, a remarkable 1.1 goals per contest. Müller was named European Footballer of the Year in 1970—he was the first German to win that award—and was a two-time West German Footballer of the Year (1967 and 1969).

Müller was a legendary schoolboy footballer, scoring 180 goals in the 1962–63 season for the youth side of the TSV 1861 Nördlingen club. In 1964 he signed with Bayern Munich, which was in the West German second division at the time. Along with superstar teammates Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier, Müller was one of the key figures in turning Bayern into the most-storied club in German football. The squat, barrel-chested Müller possessed surprising acceleration and leaping ability, making him a threat to score nearly every time he touched the ball in the opponent’s end. He helped Bayern earn promotion to the Bundesliga (Germany’s highest level of football) in 1965, and the team captured the German Cup in its first season in the league. During Müller’s tenure with Bayern, the team won the German Cup three more times (1967, 1969, and 1971), and he led it to the Bundesliga title in four seasons (1968–69, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74). He was Bayern’s top scorer in each season between 1964–65 and 1977–78, leading all of Europe in 1969–70 and 1971–72 (his tally of 40 in 1971–72 is a Bundesliga record). After his playing time with Bayern began to fall off in the late 1970s, Müller joined the Fort Lauderdale (Florida) Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1979, ending his playing days with two-and-a-half nondescript seasons in the United States.

In 1966 Müller had made his debut for the West German national team, with whom he had his greatest successes. He netted 10 goals in the final rounds of the 1970 World Cup, leading all scorers in the competition, as West Germany captured third place. Müller’s four goals were the high tally of the 1972 European Championship, which West Germany won. In the 1974 World Cup final, he scored the deciding goal in West Germany’s 2–1 win over the Netherlands. Having captured a World Cup title, he abruptly retired from international competition at age 28.

After leaving football, Müller struggled with alcoholism for years. He entered into rehabilitation at the behest of his former Bayern teammates and soon thereafter began a coaching career that saw him serve in a number of roles for both the Bayern top-division side and the club’s lower-tier teams.