GERD MULLER wrote his name into the history books time and time again – especially when he scored the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final.
The heroic striker tragically passed away at the age of 75.
But four years before his sad death, Muller opened up on his finest hour: hitting the back of the net to crown West Germany as world champs.
Despite more than 700 career goals and 14 major honours, he even admitted his crippling pre-match nerves after a fortune-teller predicted the Netherlands would win.
West Germany were up against one of the greatest sides of all-time, Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff’s side that pioneered ‘Total Football’.
The Dutch side had breezed to the final, dismantling Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay on the way with a brand of football never seen before.
The Netherlands were the favourites and in a 2017 interview for the book GOAL! Muller confessed he thought they had the trophy in the bag.
He recalled: “The day before the final I read in a newspaper that a fortune-teller had looked into her crystal ball and predicted that the Netherlands would win.
“I’m not superstitious but I almost couldn’t sleep because I kept on thinking of the Dutch and the fortune-teller and I thought, ‘This can’t be true.’
“And the Dutch maybe even believed that she was right, but we said to ourselves that we would put a stop to the fortune-teller’s game.
“We were a little scared of the Netherlands and we immediately conceded a penalty.”
But the Netherlands made a grave mistake – they didn’t just want to beat West Germany, they wanted to humiliate them, with anti-German sentiment still raging after World War II.
Willem van Hangem, who started in the final for the Netherlands, would later state in his autobiography: “I didn’t give a damn about the score. 1–0 was enough, as long as we could humiliate them.
“I hate them. They murdered my family. My father, my sister, two of my brothers. Each time I faced Germany I was angst-filled.”
Muller, who was largely bed-bound as he battled with dementia before his passing, added to the GOAL! book: “I have to say that the Dutch were pretty stuck up and thought that they had the Germans in the bag.
“Yes, I thought it was over… I didn’t believe. It was more likely that we would lose against them than they would win against us.
“But a German team isn’t so easy to bring down. We said to ourselves: ‘Now we will fight more than ever. Now we will give it our all.'”
I’m not superstitious but I almost couldn’t sleep because I kept on thinking of the Dutch and the fortune-teller
Gerd Muller, GOAL!
Muller would, of course, score in the final.
It would be his 14th goal in World Cups, a record that would later be surpassed by Ronaldo and then Miroslav Klose, and his 68th for West Germany, a record until it was broken by Klose in 2014.
Unlike Klose, who needed 137 games for Germany and 24 in World Cups to reach his mark, Muller only played 62 international matches (13 in World Cups), scoring at a rate of more than a goal per game.
Typically, Muller was modest about his World Cup-winning strike.
MODEST MULLER
IN MICHAEL DONALD’S GOAL!, the famed photo-journalist tracked down all of the World Cup final goalscorers.
He flew to Germany to meet Gerd Muller, one of the greatest goalscorers ever.
“A really nice guy, and as a player he was a master goalscorer.
“All the players admitted that scoring a goal in the World Cup final changed their lives.
“Muller attributed his goal to the team and was very modest.”
He continued: “[Rainer] Bonhoff and [Jurgen] Grabowski came from the right and that was where the goal was, where I was.
“I was going forward, then back again. I was lucky.
“Three Dutchmen were all going forward when the ball went to my left foot and I kicked the ball into the far corner [of the goal].
“And you keep on looking at the clock – to see how much time is left.
“And the time doesn’t go by, the time doesn’t go by, and you keep on looking over.
“And when the final whistle came, we cheered. When I played for the national team I scored 68 goals in 62 internationals.
“I scored many important goals, many of them in cup finals – there are so many – but the World Cup is the most important.”
Muller, who retired from international football after the final, aged only 28, also remembers the World Cup celebrations were a disaster.
Marvellous Muller
Bayern Munich
- 564 goals in 605 matches (all-time top scorer)
- Bundesliga: 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
- DFB-Pokal Cup: 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
- European Cup: 1974, 1975, 1976
- European Cup winners Cup: 1967
West Germany
- 68 goals in 62 matches (then a record, second all-time)
- World Cup: 1974
- European Championships: 1972
Individual
- Ballon d’Or: 1970
- German player of the year: 1967, 1969
The Bayern Munich record goalscorer said: “The celebration dinner that night was badly organised. Our wives weren’t allowed in.
“They were downstairs having more fun than us. That wasn’t Fifa’s fault, it was our own fault, the German Football Federation’s.
“But then we all went to a club together. I can’t remember the name of it.”
© Michael Donald 2017
GOAL! by Michael Donald is published by Hamlyn, £20 octopusbooks.co.uk
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
