Gerd Müller, who passed away yesterday at the age of 75, is one of the only purple footballers who has managed to break the boundaries of time.
Although he scored his last goals four decades ago, the former West Germany and Bayern Munich striker is a name well known even to those who have not seen "The Pioneers' Muhammad Ali" with their own eyes.
Because Müller, who at the beginning was a fat and short machine, squat and solid, was told that he would never succeed as a footballer and was advised to find another job - has over the years become the best striker in the world.
With 176 centimeters and a wonderful sense of direction, the German managed to convert the complicated goal-scoring operation into a routine matter.
The amount of goals he scored and the way he did it put Muller at the top of the profession for generations, making it a kind of metric that can be used even today.
For example - only last season, Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski managed to improve on the record of conquests he set for one season in the Bundesliga (40, without penalties).
A few years back it was Leo Messi at his peak who managed to score more goals than Muller in a calendar year, and only Brazilian Ronaldo and Miroslav Klose overtook him on the list of greatest scorers in World Cup history.
"Der Bomber" (the bomber in German) set records some of which were only recently broken by the best players in the world, and others that are unlikely to be broken ever.
Müller wins for West Germany against Australia in World Cup 1974, AFP
"It will remain in our hearts forever"
Müller arrived at Bayern Munich in 1964.
The team was then in the second division and he was called by coach Zeltko Tchaikovsky "the fat and short Muller".
This promising starting point continued with four championships, four trophies, three European Champions Cups, a holding trophy and an intercontinental trophy in one of the most successful periods in the history of any club.
Along with legends such as Sepp Meyer, Franz Beckenbauer, Oli Hans and Franz Ruth, Müller bombarded unimaginable amounts of goals. Goals in 427 Bundesliga games - a record kept to this day.
In the 1969/70 season he scored in 16 consecutive rounds, another record that holds, and in the German Cup his balance is 78 goals in 62 games - the best in history of course.
"He is one of the great legends in the history of Bayern Munich," CEO Oliver Kahn said yesterday.
Itching will remain in our hearts forever. "
Müller (right) in 1996 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, a place that used to be a home, EPI
Muller also did a lot, a little in the team uniform.
He scored 68 goals in 62 international games, and only Klose scored more than him (71), but needed more than twice as many games (137).
Müller was a partner in winning the European Championship in 1972 when he scored a double in the final and finished as the top scorer, and two years later led West Germany to the World Cup.
Writer Eduardo Galliano, who wrote football with the same efficiency with which Muller scored, described it this way: "The bad wolf was not seen on the lawn. He was disguised as a kind grandmother and hid his claws and pointed fangs. No one noticed him during the game. He slid slowly into the extension, "Close to the gate, undisturbed. There, he suddenly revealed his murderous and biting character." The winning goal he scored against the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup final exactly meets that description. Gerd Müller at his best.
