Germany fell in love with Thomas Müller on 27 June 2010 — the day of the memorable World Cup encounter between old rivals Germany and England. It was deep into the second half and the 21-year-old attacking midfielder, who a year earlier had been a regular for Bayern Munich reserves in the third division, coolly finished off a picture-book counterattack to make it 3-1. Three minutes later, England were hit on the break again. And again it was Müller who put the last pass away from close range for a 4-1 final.
But those goals weren’t the reason Germany fell in love with the young man. That happened after the game. Müller was on German television, flashing his goofy but endearing smile. At last, the interviewer congratulated him once more on an outstanding performance and indicated the player was now free to join the festivities in the dressing room.
“Can I say ‘Hi’ to someone?” Müller asked.
Startled and amused, the reporter said yes, sure. Trying to locate the camera, Müller said, “I just wanted to send greetings to my two grandmas and my grandpa. That’s long overdue.” Then he waved into the camera like an overjoyed schoolboy who’s just won a spelling contest and knows his grandparents will be proud of him.
Needless to say, the next day the phone in the village of Pähl, 25 miles south of Munich, rang off the hook. Finally, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper got hold of 81-year-old Erna Burghart, one of Müller’s grandmas. She said she always lit a candle when Thomas played but had forgotten this time, which is why she was slightly surprised he’d scored nonetheless. Asked about the greetings on live television, she replied: “Nice, wasn’t it? Such a sweet boy.”
“I hadn’t planned this. I couldn’t, because I didn’t know I’d be scoring two goals and giving post-match interviews,” he told a magazine in an exclusive interview. Müller was relaxing in a hotel room in Frankfurt, where the national team had come together to prepare for a Euro 2016 qualifier in Dublin against the Republic of Ireland. “It was spontaneous. And I underestimated the whole thing. I had been part of the circus that is professional football for only one year and didn’t have much media experience. My grannies were besieged by the press. I just hadn’t considered that they might become the centre of attention because of all this.”
Müller’s gesture endeared him to the public. Amid the frenzy, the madness, and the parade of inflated egos in a massive global event like the World Cup, saying “hi” to your grannies seemed so, well, normal. And indeed today, five years and many trophies later, it’s still the first thing everyone remarks on when talk turns to Müller: He seems so normal. From his name – statistically the most common in Germany, which is why “Thomas Müller” is sometimes used to describe the ultimate average guy – right down to his looks.
Müller is the first to admit he has spindly legs and the sort of chest his former team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger described as a “chicken breast”. His wife is not a model but an amateur dressage rider (and “a local girl,” as grandma Erna proudly told the press). Müller sports a nondescript hairdo and doesn’t have a single tattoo. On being asked if there isn’t a lot of pressure in the dressing room to adopt the now-universal look, he said: “No, not at all. And even if there would be pressure, I’d be able to withstand it.” Then he added: “See, I just don’t give a lot of thought to these things. I just try not to pretend to be something I’m not.”
Even Müller’s game has the same earthy, no-nonsense quality to it. When Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi glide across the pitch and slither through defences with otherworldly grace, you marvel at their moves and feel honoured to be in the presence of such genius. When you watch Müller, you catch yourself thinking, “I could probably do that too”. But of course you couldn’t. Hardly anyone can. That’s why Müller is one of the most valuable and coveted players in the world. Indeed, he might just be the most valuable of them all. It’s no secret that Manchester United have been targeting him.
Müller is perhaps the most enigmatic player in the international game. It’s plain that he’s brilliant: he’s won the World Cup and the Champions League and has finished fifth at the Ballon d’Or. He was the top goalscorer at the 2010 World Cup and the second best four years later.
It’s nearly impossible to explain what makes Müller brilliant. “I know that I make technical mistakes from time to time,” he said. “It’s one of the aspects of my game that I’ve been working on for years. I think I’ve managed to reduce the number of those technical mistakes to a minimum, but occasionally they happen. On the other hand, I do have moments of technical brilliance.”
But he’s also a professional and highly competitive. And as much as he might joke about his spindly legs and his lack of dribbling skills, he knows that his blatantly obvious but deeply mysterious qualities are few and far between in the modern game. Now that the big teams increasingly find themselves up against sides that play very deep and leave them next to no space in the final third, having someone who can interpret this space so well as to be suddenly unmarked is priceless.