And “ boom “: Gerd Müller scored 365 goals for FC Bayern . He tops the alltime Bundesliga goalscorer list .
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BAYERN GAME February 2025
Oliver Kahn was five years old at the time , and sometimes you don ‘ t quite trust the images you ‘ ve memorised through the eyes of a child when you ‘ re older . The goalkeeping titan replays the opening ceremony of the 1974 World Cup in Germany in his head . He found it a little strange at the time and in some ways now in retrospect too , he says with a grin : “ There were these big , weird footballs on the pitch with people coming out of them .“ Perhaps ″ there ‘ s a bit of memory distortion involved : it was a very , very , very long time ago . It was generations ago .“ But Kahn is completely accurate in his recollection of the main element of the ceremony . The representatives of the 16 participating nations emerged from the oversized plastic balls : flag wavers from Florence and pipers from Scotland , gauchos from Chile and clog dancers from the Netherlands , a Brazilian samba dance group performed , and pop singer Frank Schöbel sang the song ″ Freunde gibt es überall “ ( There are friends everywhere ) for the GDR . The Winninger Winzer Tanz- und Trachtengruppe ( Winninger Vintners dance and traditional costume group ) from the Mosel represented the host country , Germany . The sky was overcast and it rained at times , but on the whole the event , which Kahn recalls as being odd , came together nicely . With a know-it-all view from today , one could only criticise the directors for one detail : Instead of the Winninger Vintners as representatives of the German footballing community , it
The FC Bayern legend : With heroes like Müller , Beckenbauer and Hoeneß , FCB were able to gain crucial momentum .
would have been better to have Gerd Müller emerge from the giant ball . The motto of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany was ‘ Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden ’ or ‘ A time to make friends ’, but the summer of 1974 marked the first time ( West ) Germany welcomed visitors to a World Cup tournament . But unlike in 2006 , when the German national team was on a quest to establish its own football culture and was therefore a selfless host , the visiting nations knew they would have to deal with Gerd Müller at some point on their way to the 1974 title . Four years earlier , the striker had racked up ten goals at the World Cup in Mexico , and even more than 50 years later , noone has come anywhere near achieving that level of tournament success – it was clear that the ‘ Bomber of the Nation ’ would not stop scoring goals at his home tournament until the title had been won . His team wasn ‘ t the best , but in the end they became world champions . And it was only logical that Gerd Müller scored the winning goal in the final . It ‘ s not only because of this historic goal that Gerd Müller has fascinated fans for generations . Oliver Kahn , for example , nods emphatically when asked whether he ‘ s glad he never had to save shots from Müller in his goalkeeping career : ″ Absolutely , absolutely ,“ says the 2002 World Cup runner-up . ″ He had an incredible feel for the situation in the penalty area and how he had to move . A goalscorer of the highest calibre .“ Kahn had the utmost respect for the sort of players you always managed to lose track of . “ And then the game was over , the striker had scored the decisive goals again , and you were left wondering if he ’ d been there at all .” According to Kahn , Müller played in a “ very , very important , decisive phase for FC Bayern . The club created its legendary status in the 70s on the basis of players like Gerd Müller , Franz Beckenbauer , Uli Hoeneß , Sepp Maier and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge , who were crucial factors along the way .” For me , says the long-serving ‘ Titan ’, ‘ they were all my great role models “. How did it all start ? “ What have we got here ?” was the first thought Sepp Maier had when the young Gerd from Nördlingen first stood in front of him . “ He was well fed ,” the goalkeeping great recalls . “ His thighs were the width of other people ’ s
24 FC Bayern Magazine