The fifteenth winner of the "Golden Ball" - Gerd Müller

Frithe tenth Ballon d'Or winner - Gerd Muller

The great goalscorer leaves everyone behind with a record number of goals in the 1970s

In a World Cup year, it is difficult for the player who impressed the most at the World Cup not to win the award for the best European player. There were no exceptions in the 1970s, and the top scorer of the world championship, Gerd Müller, grabbed the most prestigious individual prize. The Ballon d'Or goes to Bayern Munich's top scorer, although Muller is not having a memorable season with his club team.

Gerd Müller collects 77 points in the standings, leaving West Ham's Bobby Moore behind, who has just 7 less. The top 3 completes the second of last season Gigi Riva, who is part of the most memorable season of the Italian Cagliari in its entire history. Of the 26 journalists from UEFA member countries eligible to vote, 21 people put Muller in the top 5. According to 8 of them, he is the player who deserves the award the most, five put him in second place, two in third, another five in fourth, and one thinks that the maximum allotted to him is the fifth position. 19 people voted for Bobby Moore, six of them for first place, seven for second, three for third and three for fifth.

There were no Bulgarians in the ranking in the 1970s, even though for the 1969/70 season Petar Zhekov was again among the top scorers, remaining third in the battle for the "Golden Boot", which was won by Müller. Zhekov has equal number of goals with Luxembourg's Carlo Deville, but the CSKA player has done it in 10 more games.

One of the best defenders of the time, Franz Beckenbauer, as well as his teammate from the German national team, Wolfgang Overath from Cologne, remain outside the top three of the Ballon d'Or for another year. Dragan Djach and Johan Cruyff complete the top 7.

It's undoubtedly the goals that catapult Müller up the rankings. His ten goals at the World Cup in Mexico is a remarkable achievement and still the record for goals during a single World Cup. The striker scored in the first game in the 2:1 for West Germany over Morocco, then he scored a hat trick for 5:2 against Bulgaria, and in the last match of the group stage he also scored 3 goals against Peru. In the quarter-finals, he was on target in extra-time to give England victory, and despite his two extra-time goals against Italy, the Squadra Azzurri reached the final with Brazil, while West Germany had to settle for third place.

At club level with Bayern Munich, Müller also had a successful season in terms of goals, scoring a total of 38 in the 1969/70 season in the league alone, with the majority of those coming in the 1970 calendar year. He was awarded the Golden Boot. , but with his team, he was eliminated in the first round of the European Champions Cup, lost the battle for the Bundesliga title to Borussia Mönchengladbach and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the cup, which he also defends. Still, the top scorer of a championship like the German one, and with 18 goals more than the second, is a sufficient addition to the performance on the pitches in Mexico with the national team.

The goal-scoring flair, the ability to be in the right place when it's time to score, the constant quality performances, the indescribable style and most of all the record for goals in world finals bring the Ballon d'Or to one of the greatest goalscorers of all time, Gerd Mueller.