Gerd Müller

Gerhard "Gerd" Muller (November 3, 1945 - August 15, 2021) was a German footballer. He played for FC Bayern Munchen 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 Nordlingen, where he scored in the 1962/63 season 180 out of 204 goals. From 1964 he played for FC Bayern Munchen. In his first season for Bayern Munchen 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 Muller 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
Muller 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 Muller 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 Sud: 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 Muller - Player profile FIFA.com
Portrait of Gerd Muller at FIFA.com
Statistics on Muller'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
FC Bayern Munchen players
Ballon d'Or winners