German Footballer
– The penalty area was my kingdom –
- Considered one of the best forwards of all time.
- Debut: 1965
- Retired: 1981
- Position: Center forward
- Parents: Johann Heinrich Müller and Christina Karoline
- Spouse: Ursula "Uschi" Ebenböck
- Children: Nicole Müller
- Name: Gerhard Müller
- Nicknames: Bomber of the Nation, Torpedo Müller
Gerd Müller was born on 3 November 1945 in Nördlingen , Bavaria, Germany.
He was the youngest of five children of Johann Heinrich Müller and his wife Christina Karoline.
TSV
He started playing football on the street, and in August 1958, aged twelve, he joined the TSV Nördlingen C youth team. In the A youth team he is said to have scored 180 of a total of 204 goals during the 1962/63 season and was selected for the Bavarian Football Association youth team.
He graduated from high school at the age of fourteen and began an apprenticeship as a weaver at a company in Nördlingen.
Bayern Munich
He moved to Bayern Munich and made his debut on 18 October 1964 against Freiburg, scoring in an 11–2 win. Müller played his first Bundesliga match on 14 August 1965 (0–1 v Munich) and scored 14 goals in 33 appearances in his first season.
With Bayern he won the European Cup in 1974, 1975 and 1976, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1967 .
Selection of the Federal Republic of Germany
For the West Germany national team he scored 68 goals in 62 international matches.
From 1972 to 2014 he was Germany's most successful goalscorer. On 6 September 2013, Miroslav Klose equalled Müller's record, and on 6 June 2014 he broke the joint record with his 69th international goal, but it took him 132 matches.
Bomber of the Nation
Nicknamed Bomber der Nation , he scored 628 goals throughout his career. In 1970 he was awarded the Ballon d'Or for being the best player in Europe. In 1970 and 1972 he won the Golden Boot for being the top scorer in the European leagues.
Fort Lauderdale Strikers
In 1979, he moved to the United States to play for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers alongside fellow countryman Bernd Hölzenbein. He played in the North American Soccer League (NASL), playing three seasons in this league, scoring 40 goals in 80 games and reaching the final of the 1981 season, but his team was defeated.
Throughout his career, Müller was the top scorer in 18 competitions, including seven times in the Bundesliga.
Depression
After retiring in 1982, he became depressed and became an alcoholic. Some of his former Bayern teammates convinced him to begin rehabilitation.
Between 1992 and 2014 he worked on the coaching staff of the second team at FC Bayern.
Family
In October 1965 he met his future wife, Ursula "Uschi" Ebenböck, while having coffee at a branch of Tchibo in Munich's Ostbahnhof. At the time, Ebenböck was just sixteen years old and Müller celebrated his twentieth birthday shortly afterwards.
They married in 1967, and his wife acted as his manager, especially in his early days at Bayern Munich.
In 1971 their daughter Nicole was born, who would go on to give birth to his only grandchild, Mick.
In October 2015, it was announced that Müller was suffering from Alzheimer's.
Death
Gerd Müller passed away in the early hours of Sunday, August 15, 2021.