It was one of close clever passes that we’ve seen so often from Thomas Müller as the 34-year-old played in Aleksandar Pavlovic from the edge of the box to fire home Bayern’s equaliser on the stroke of half time at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Müller had brought the home side back into the game, allowing Harry Kane and Matthijs de Ligt to turn things around in the second half and wrap up victory. And it was a truly historic one for Bayern’s No.25 – his 500th at senior level for the club. No player had ever before reached that milestone.
Müller's milestones
It’s yet another highlight from a truly fairy-tale career. His first-team debut in August 2008 only ended in a 2-2 draw against Hamburg, but Müller then won the other four games of his maiden top-flight season. Particularly memorable was his first strike in the 7-1 thrashing of Sporting Lisbon in March 2009, when the Bavarian scored in his first Champions League outing. From then on it was a case of "Müller always plays" at Bayern, and so on 17 April 2012, at the age of just 22, he brought up his 100th victory with the German record champions in the famous 2-1 semi-final win over Real Madrid.
Number 200 followed around two and a half years later, in the 2-0 win against Freiburg on 16 December 2014; the 300th on 27 January 2018 in the 5-2 success against Hoffenheim; he hit 400 on 3 November 2020 in the 6-2 victory at Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League. And now Müller’s added a fifth century to his unrivalled collection.
Born winner and trophy collector
Müller certainly knows better than most how to get wins in the Bundesliga – or rather, only one other person knows exactly as well. The attacker is currently tied with long-time teammate Manuel Neuer for the most victories in Germany’s top flight on 332 each. It's hardly surprising that Müller is unique here, having won a record 12 Bundesliga titles.
During his era, the FCB stalwart has almost always been involved in key title moments that have gone the way of the Bavarians. Of the 20 finals that have been won during his time at Bayern, he's been on the pitch in 19. The two triumphs in the Champions League in 2013 and 2020 obviously stand out, in addition to which there have been six victorious DFB Cup finals, two in the UEFA Super Cup, eight in the DFL-Supercup and one at the FIFA Club World Cup in 2013. He only missed the most recent success in that competition in February 2021 due to Covid-19 after appearing in the semi-final.
Müller delivers assists and crucial goals
You don't achieve a record like that without having a certain influence on your team's play. Müller has scored 237 goals and set up 214 in 690 competitive appearances for Bayern. The 2014 World Cup winner has netted the winning goal for the Reds no fewer than 70 times.
Although he didn’t provide the decisive goal in his landmark victory against Gladbach, it was the 451st time he has been involved in Bayern goal as he teed up the equaliser – his seventh assist of this Bundesliga campaign. That incredible winning mentality has allowed Müller to write yet another chapter of unparalleled success into the Bayern history books. Well done, Thomas!
You can read more about Müller’s record win here:
