Thomas Müller's top 10 career milestones
Thomas Müller has been there, done that and worn almost every single title-winning T-shirt you could imagine over a long and extremely decorated career. He has now surpassed Sepp Maier's 709-game total as Bayern Munich's record appearance holder in all competitions, bringing up his 150th Bundesliga goal in the process.
To mark the historic occasion achieved in Bayern's 2-0 win at home to Freiburg on Matchday 2 of 2024/25, bundesliga.com is running through the very proudest moments of Müller's time in football.
1) Bayern breakthrough (15 August 2008)
It all started for an 18-year-old Müller under a German football legend of a different era, Jürgen Klinsmann, as he came on as an 80th-minute replacement for another legend of the game, Mirsolav Klose. Given those names, you might assume he was always destined for greatness, but there would be no way of knowing that at the time for the player who had progressed through the Bayern youth ranks and earned a smattering of Germany youth international caps. Ten minutes alone against Hamburg (for whom new Bayern coach Vincent Kompany was remarkably making his final Bundesliga appearance that very same day!) wouldn't be enough to show that either, as the fresh-faced Müller wasn't able to inspire his side to a late winner in a game drawn 2-2, yet the first of over 700 appearances for his side had been made.
2) Getting a goal (10 March 2009)
While Müller had to bide his time for regular minutes in the Bayern team, appearing just four times as a substitute in 2008/09, the circumstances of his first goal-scoring performance provided a few clues of his immense promise. In an 18-minute showing in a UEFA Champions League last-16 second leg against Sporting Lisbon, Müller managed to set up a goal by delivering a cross that Mark van Bommel finished, and then netted himself amid a goalmouth scramble to display his clinical touch in a Bayern shirt for the first time. Bayern chalked up a thumping 7-1 win on the night, and while Müller wasn't called upon as they exited to a famous Barcelona side in the next round, he would add over 200 more strikes on all kinds of stages for his club.
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3) First Bundesliga crown (8 May 2010)
The appointment of Louis van Gaal as Bayern coach proved the catalyst for Müller to regularly deploy his unique skillset to terrorise Bundesliga defences for the first time. It didn't take long for a regular run in the first team to make Müller's sheer class apparent, with a brace in his first Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund helping him to the Bundesliga Player of the Month honour in September 2009. The season continued in that magical vein for Müller. His first hat-trick at home to Bochum in May 2010 put Bayern on course to win the Bundesliga title, and the first of a plethora of personal honours followed the next week. A DFB Cup came later that same month along with a spot in the Bundesliga's Team of the Season for a man who was fast becoming a face of a thriving Bayern side, despite his young age.
4) Golden boot glory (11 July 2010)
What Bundesliga followers were already well aware of, the whole world would duly find out fast. After making his Germany debut in March 2010 and being on the losing side of the 2010 UEFA Champions League final, Müller was named in the national team squad for the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After Germany's feel-good campaign in the 2006 home tournament and journey to the final of UEFA Euro 2008, the then 20-year-old added a new dimension to an ambitious side with his intelligent play and remarkable ability to find space in tight spaces. He smashed five goals in South Africa - including two in a famous 4-1 last 16 win over England and the opener in a 4-0 victory over Argentina in the quarter-finals. Coupled with three assists, that was enough to make the lad from a small town near the mountains of south Bavaria a World Cup Golden Boot winner.
5) Centurion - before calamity (31 March 2012)
Van Gaal may have been replaced before 2011/12 with Jupp Heynckes, but there was no taking Müller out of the Bayern team - quite literally! He was starting to show leadership to match his sharp mentality, while regularly revealing the laid-back side that endeared him to fans and the wider public. Having played to the right and left of attack, Müller settled into a punchy playmaker role as he racked up three consecutive seasons by 2011/12 in which he had appeared in every single Bundesliga match. An encounter against Nuremberg in March 2012 saw him make his 100th league appearance, with 29 goals to his name by that stage. That campaign almost finished in dream circumstances as Müller opened the scoring in a Champions League final at Bayern's Allianz Arena - only for a Chelsea equaliser and penalty shootout defeat to bring heartache.
6) A legend in London (25 May 2013)
Müller secured his second Bundesliga title in 2012/13 as a hungry Bayern side bounced back to dislodge Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund from the top of the domestic tree. There was one honour they wanted more than anything after the showpiece event the previous season had gone sour, though, and Bayern duly claimed the Champions League against, ironically, Klopp's Dortmund in an all-German final at Wembley Stadium. Müller scored an immense eight goals in the victorious European campaign as he showed his calm yet powerful resilience in response to the previous year's disappointment. He had now demonstrated beyond any doubt that he was a world-class player able to step up to the very biggest stage.
7) On top of the world (13 July 2014)
There was very little missing in Müller's trophy cabinet by the time he secured his third Bundesliga and DFB Cup double in 2013/14. Germany went to the 2014 World Cup among the favourites for the crown, and Müller made absolutely clear with a hat-trick in their opening match against Portugal that he would once again leave his mark all over the big event. He had a hand in another five goals during the tournament - including the opening strike in the iconic 7-1 win over Brazil at the semi-final stage - and played through all 120 minutes of the final as Germany gained the glory they were seeking with a win over Argentina. Müller's spot in world football history was secured.
8) Goals galore (30 April 2016)
Müller continued to metamorphose into any attacking role his Bayern coaches desired - coining the term Raumdeuter (space interpreter) as a way of describing his style - and by the time 2015/16 came around, he was operating mostly as an attacking midfielder under Pep Guardiola. He had the art of bursting into the box to finish a swift passing move favoured by the former Barcelona coach down to a tee - starting the season with six goals from the opening four matches. At the end of April, Müller fired in his 20th of the campaign - and last in his highest-scoring season in a Bayern jersey. Only two players, Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, outscored him in the Bundesliga in that campaign.
Watch: Thomas Müller: 15 seasons, 15 goals
9) Record winner (27 May 2023)
As the years progressed, Müller lost a little of his pace, but none of the trademark cleverness to his play. As more top coaches and huge stars came and went at Bayern, Müller stuck around and still found a place in the side. With Bayern winning a staggering 11 Bundesliga titles in a row, Müller had the honour of captaining the side (in the absence of the injured Manuel Neuer) during the most dramatic title win of the lot - a final-day heist at Cologne when Dortmund failed to hold onto a points advantage. His astonishing total of 12 league titles makes Müller the most decorated player in the history of the Bundesliga!
Watch: The best of Thomas Müller in 2023/24
10) 700 up (6 April 2024)
As the ultimate dressing room pro, Müller was more than happy to accept more of a supporting role at times as he progressed beyond the age of 30 - but his ability to continue to deliver when needed, either in a starting berth or seizing the momentum of a game as an experienced substitute, meant he has always been a part of Bayern coaches' plans. Thomas Tuchel was in the hot seat when Müller made his 700th appearance for the club in a match at Heidenheim, but there was no way that would be the end of the story. The first Bundesliga match under Kompany saw Müller equal Sepp Maier as Bayern's greatest-ever appearance maker in all competitions (709), while the encounter at Wolfsburg also saw Müller surpass the legendary goalkeeper for the most Bundesliga appearances (474) in Bayern's glittering history.
Watch: Thomas Müller's funniest moments
It was almost so typically Müller to mark the momentous occasion by also scoring his 150th Bundesliga goal, very nearly netting with his first touch after coming on against Wolfsburg.
But it turns out he was simply saving it for the first home game of the season, where he came off the bench to bag Bayern's second with a stereotypical Müller goal against Freiburg to bring up 150 Bundesliga goals on the day he reached a record 710 competitive outings for his boyhood club.
Watch: Müller talks winning and records on his historic day
Only Gerd Müller (365), Robert Lewandowski (238) and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (162) have more goals for Bayern, but the new record man boasts the sort of longevity even those other legends can't, having now scored in 16 consecutive Bundesliga campaign for the Bavarians - no player for any club has managed a goal in more seasons in succession.
Add in 174 assists from his 475 Bundesliga games, which is the most of any player since collection of those stats began in 1992. They included a season record of 21 in 2019/20.
All told in his 710 competitive outings for his boyhood club, he has 245 goals and 290 assists. All in a uniquely Müller way.
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