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.

Career

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
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
|}

International career statistics 

|-
|1966||1||0
|-
|1967||4||6
|-
|1968||3||2
|-
|1969||7||9
|-
|1970||12||13
|-
|1971||8||12
|-
|1972||7||13
|-
|1973||8||7
|-
|1974||12||6
|-
!Total||62||68
|}

References

Other websites 
 Gerd Müller - Player profile FIFA.com
 
 Portrait of Gerd Müller  at FIFA.com
 Statistics on Müller's matches and goals at RSSSF.com

1945 births
2021 deaths
1970 FIFA World Cup players
1974 FIFA World Cup players
Association football forwards
German footballers
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease