BAYERN GAME
“ A goalscorer of the highest calibre“: Oliver Kahn is glad he never had to compete against Müller.
A FEW CENTIMETRES OF SPACE, THAT WAS ALL HE NEEDED
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
waists. The way he looked, I thought he wouldn’ t last long with us.” But Maier revised his opinion in the very first training session.“ Gerd took off like a wild hare on the run, had a great shot from a standing position and was absolutely unfathomable as a striker.“ Coach Zlatko‘ Cik’ Cajkovski always used to keep training going until his team had won – and he always put Müller in his team.“ Der Bomber” never lost a practice game in the 70s. Uli Hoeneß clearly remembers how things once got a bit too colourful for him and Paul Breitner in a short game of‘ old vs. young’. The two firebrands decided they’ d go in defence to make sure Gerd didn’ t get his seven or eight goals again.“ As if”, Hoeneß said with a grin.“ Paul was lying on his backside on the left, me on the right, and Gerd was scoring goal after goal.”“ There was only one way to stop Müller, says Franz ″ Bulle“( Bull) Roth: ″ You had to get to the ball before he did. But we could never neutralise him completely.“ The best feeling you could have had was ″ that he only scored three or four goals instead of seven or eight“. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge joined FC Bayern in 1974 – and would experience Müller standing in the shower looking angry if he hadn‘ t scored or, in his opinion, had scored too few goals. During this time, the former CEO enjoyed learning at first hand. ″ The penalty area was Gerd‘ s domain: One step forward, one step back, forward, back, forward, back – and at some point he‘ d have a few centimetres of space, which was all he needed,“ said Rummenigge,“ He had the ability to react like no other centre-forward in the world.” And Müller was also impressive in terms of his technique.“ His one-twos with Franz Beckenbauer were accurate to the millimetre. I’ d say the duo were like [ fictional pranksters ] Max and Moritz for opposition. No-one could match
In his element – Sepp Maier:“ Thighs like other people’ s waists, and he took off like a wild hare.“
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