Introduction
Dieter Müller (born Dieter Kaster on 1 April 1954) is a German former footballer who played as a forward.
Career
At international level, Müller appeared in twelve senior matches, scoring nine goals for West Germany between 1976 and 1978. He played in the 1976 European Football Championship (in the final of which he scored) and the 1978 FIFA World Cup. In his spell with 1. FC Köln he set a record for the most goals scored by a player in a single Bundesliga match. On 17 August 1977, he contributed six goals (scoring in the 12th, 23rd, 32nd, 52nd, 73rd and in the 85th minute) to Köln's 7–2 victory over Werder Bremen in front of a crowd of 19,000 at Köln's Müngersdorfer Stadion. But since the cameramen were on strike on this day, there are no TV-recordings of Müller's goals. He was crowned Bundesliga topscorer that season (24 goals in 33 games), just like the season before (34 goals in 34 appearances). Overall, he scored 177 goals in the West German top flight in 303 games.
He is the son of Heinz Kaster, who played as a defender for FC St. Pauli and Kickers Offenbach in the early 1950s. The striker had already been a schoolboy international, when his stepfather's adoption turned his surname into Müller.
Career statistics
Club
| Club performance | League | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals |
| Germany | League | |||
| 1972–73 | Kickers Offenbach | Bundesliga | 2 | 0 |
| 1973–74 | 1. FC Köln | 31 | 17 | |
| 1974–75 | 34 | 24 | ||
| 1975–76 | 19 | 14 | ||
| 1976–77 | 34 | 34 | ||
| 1977–78 | 33 | 24 | ||
| 1978–79 | 29 | 8 | ||
| 1979–80 | 34 | 21 | ||
| 1980–81 | 34 | 17 | ||
| 1981–82 | VfB Stuttgart | 30 | 14 | |
| France | League | |||
| 1982–83 | Girondins Bordeaux | Division 1 | 29 | 17 |
| 1983–84 | 28 | 14 | ||
| 1984–85 | 36 | 12 | ||
| Switzerland | League | |||
| 1985–86 | Grasshopper Zürich | Super League | 7 | 3 |
| Germany | League | |||
| 1985–86 | 1. FC Saarbrücken | Bundesliga | 23 | 4 |
| Germany | League | |||
| 1986–87 | Kickers Offenbach | 0 | 0 | |
| 1987–88 | 2. Bundesliga | 24 | 16 | |
| 1988–89 | 27 | 10 | ||
| 1989–90 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Country | Germany | 354 | 203 | |
| France | 93 | 43 | ||
| Switzerland | 7 | 3 | ||
| Total | 454 | 249 | ||
Personal life
He was struck by a family tragedy. His son Alexander, aged 16, died of a brain tumor in 1997.
Müller suffered a severe heart attack on 5 October 2012 and fell into a five-day coma.