Gerd Müller, legendary striker for Germany and Bayern Munich in the 1960s and 1970s, died on Sunday at the age of 75, the Bavarian club said in a statement.
“Today is a sad, dark day for FC Bayern and its supporters,” club president Herbert Hainer said in a statement. Müller, author of 365 goals with Bayern in the Bundesliga and 68 with the FRG, had notably won the World Cup in 1974 at home.
Affected by Alzheimer’s disease since 2015
Affected by Alzheimer’s disease since February 2015, a disease made public by Bayern a few months later, Müller was recently accommodated in a specialized establishment, his only recent positions having come from his wife, sometimes to describe his weakness – “he sleeps most of the day” – sometimes to ensure that Müller “would not complain” of losing his record for goals scored in a Bundesliga season.
A sign of fate, this historic mark of 40 goals scored in 1971/72 fell at the end of May 2021, the work of the Pole Robert Lewandowski, star center forward of the “Rekordmeister”. On Instagram, the latter very quickly paid tribute to his predecessor, by posting a photo of Müller, accompanied by a symbol of prayer, hands joined.
An attacker with exceptional statistics
Müller “is one of Bayern’s greatest legends, his performances remain unmatched to this day and will forever be a part of the great history of Bayern and German football,” said former Nationalmannschaft goalkeeper Oliver Kahn , currently manager at the Munich club.
Germany will long remember this vivacious striker, excellent in anticipation, explosive although tough or even “short on legs”, and with exceptional statistics.
In 607 matches played in the Bavarian jersey, he will have scored 566 goals, including 365 in the German Championship, a record that still stands.
But beyond Bavaria, where he won three Champion Clubs’ Cups and four German league titles in particular, it is within the national team that Müller wrote his legend, that of the imperturbable FRG of the 1970s, crowned during the Euro-1972 and the World Cup-1974, after third place in the 1970 World Cup.
Competitions on which he will have left his mark, scoring 14 goals in two Worlds (record which held until in 2006, beaten by the Brazilian Ronaldo with 15 goals, then by the German Miroslav Klose in 2014 with 16 goals), and illuminating the final of Euro-1972 with a double in Brussels against the USSR (3-0).
The “bomber of the nation”
Germany, then crowned on multiple occasions in major competition, had then won only one major title (World Cup 1954), which earned Müller the nickname “Bomber der Nation”, the “bomber of the nation”.
In a short statement posted on Twitter, the German national team paid tribute to its Bomber. “The DFB (Federation) mourns one of the greatest German footballers of all time. Rest in peace Gerd Müller. Our hearts go out to his wife and family, ”said the Federation.