Gerhard "Gerd" Müller (November 3, 1945 – August 15, 2021) was a German footballer. He played for FC Bayern München and the Germany national team. He was the best striker at his times and still owns many scoring records.
Club career
He started playing football for TSV 1861 Nördlingen, where he scored in the 1962/63 season 180 out of 204 goals. From 1964 he played for FC Bayern München. In his first season for Bayern München he scored in 26 matches 33 goals. From 1965 till 1979 he scored in 427 Bundesliga matches and scored 365 goals. This record is still existing. From 1979 till 1982 he played in the US-professional league for Ford Lauderdale Strikers and Smiths Brothers Lounge.
International career
He started his international career on 12 October 1966 in Ankara versus Turkey. In his second match versus Albania he scored his first four of his 68 goals in the national team. He was member of the 1970 FIFA World Cup team. With ten goals he was the best scorer in this tournament. 1972 Germany won the European Championship and Müller was again the best scorer of this tournament. 1974 he won with Germany the FIFA World Cup where he scored the second goal in the 2:1 victory over the Netherlands. After this tournament he resigned from the team.
Records
Müller scored 68 goals in 62 matches for Germany. He was the best scorer of the team until Miroslav Klose broke his record in 2014. During two World Cups (1970 and 1974) he scored 14 goals. This record was broken by Ronaldo during the World Cup 2006.
Death
On 6 October 2015, it was announced that Müller was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He died on 15 August 2021 at a nursing home in Wolfratshausen, Germany, aged 75.
Honors
Titles with Bayern Munich
Intercontinental Cup: 1976
European Cup: 1974, 1975, 1976
European Cup Winners’ Cup: 1967
Bundesliga: 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
German Cup: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
Regionalliga Süd: 1965
International
World Cup: 1974, Third-Place: 1970
European Championship: 1972
Personal honours
European Footballer of the Year: 1970
German Footballer of the Year: 1967, 1969
Voted best Player 40 Years Bundesliga 1963–2003
European top scorer: 1970, 1972
German top scorer: 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978
World Cup top scorer: 1970
European Championship top scorer: 1972
European Cup top scorer: 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977
World Football's Greatest Goalscorer of All Time (awarded in 2000) Named to FIFA 100
Club career statistics
|-
|1964/65||rowspan="15"|Bayern Munich||Regionalliga||26||33||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||26||33 |- |1965/66||rowspan="14"|Bundesliga||33||15||6||1||colspan="2"|-||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||colspan="2"|-||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||colspan="2"|-||21||13
|-
|1979||rowspan="3"|Fort Lauderdale Strikers||rowspan="3"|NASL||27||19||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||27||19 |- |1980||36||16||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||36||16 |- |1981||17||5||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||17||5 453||398||62||78||74||66||589||542 80||40||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||80||40 533||438||62||78||74||66||669||582 |}