Former German national team coach Joachim Löw has praised the career of Thomas Müller, who recently played his last home game for FC Bayern Munich. In a guest article for the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Saturday edition), Löw not only remembers Müller as a great player who became the top scorer of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and played a crucial role in Germany’s World Cup title in Brazil four years later, but also as a unique individual. Löw recalls how Müller arrived at the DFB headquarters before his first international match in March 2010 with “a wonderful carefree attitude” and how Müller was “from the very beginning as he was later: humorous, unconventional, not streamlined. He wasn’t shy like a newcomer, he was just there, he immediately fit in some way.” Löw also points out that from the first training session, they could see everything that makes Müller’s game: his intuition, his sense of space and situations in the midfield and his incredible goal instinct. More than anything about the footballer Müller, Löw praises the “mood setter” Müller: “When Thomas was in the dressing room, the temperature changed.” No one could “wake up, excite, or calm down the teammates” like Müller. Müller is “one of those irreplaceable players who are so important for a dressing room.” Even though Löw sometimes had to restrain the player: “There were situations where I had to say during training: ‘Thomas, now be quiet. You don’t have to comment on everything and constantly ask the coaches questions.'” However, Löw also remembers moments when the striker was “not in his flow” like at the 2016 European Championship, when he sensed an “inner unrest” in Müller: “Thomas” Löw said to him after a few days in Evian, “you have to calm down.” Löw is still hurt by Müller’s temporary departure from the national team. He describes the difficult conversation he had with Müller, Jérôme Boateng and Mats Hummels in Munich after the 2018 World Cup. “We had reasons for this decision, but we didn’t handle it well. I know this in hindsight and we should have handled it better, especially with these three players, for whom we owe them so much” explains Löw. “I wanted to tell the players personally and I wanted them to all find out at the same time, under no circumstances should they hear it from the media. That’s why we went to the FC Bayern training, because we knew we could all three meet there at the same time.” Müller reacted “disappointed and also a little surprised” “maybe I should have said: ‘Let’s meet in a few weeks and talk about the future.’ Then they wouldn’t have been caught off guard.” Later, Löw did bring Müller back into the national team and after all these years, there is still “a deep connection.
Müller’s Unique Persona Shines Through Decades of Success
