German star Nicolai Muller answers call to arms and ready to light up A-League with Wanderers
Just a few months ago Bayern Munich bloggers were speculating he could be a replacement for Franck Ribery. On Saturday night, thanks to the twists of fate, Nicolai Muller will make his debut for Western Sydney.
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Just eighteen months ago, Nicolai Muller was being linked with a move to the EPL. A year ago he was orchestrating wins against top European sides like Lazio and Marseille.
On Saturday night, thanks to the twists of fate, the winger will make his debut for Western Sydney, the latest in a growing line of German-based stars trading the Bundesliga for the A-League.
Muller, though, has some pedigree.
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Just a few months ago Bayern Munich bloggers were speculating he could be a replacement for Franck Ribery. Twice in 2013 he played for the German national team that a year later won the World Cup.
Now, as the result of ACL injuries to a German and a Pole, and a speculative phone call from Markus Babbel, there are hopes that Muller could be the creative spark the Wanderers desperately need to turn their bright start into a title challenge.
The first of those injuries was one Muller suffered after scoring on the first day of the new season in 2017 for Hamburg. Leaping into the air, he fell awkwardly and ruptured knee ligaments. He was out for the rest of the season bar two games.
It says a lot that while he was still injured, Southampton and West Ham were the favourites among various clubs keen to sign him, until the need to prove his fitness scared them off.
Whether without the injury his life would be different is a question he can’t easily answer.
“I don't know, I felt very good at Hamburg so I don’t know what would have happened,” he said.
“The injury was not so good timing, I’d had a good previous season and scored in the first game of that season and then this happened – it was s**t.”
Suffering a self-inflicted injury hardly helped.
“Sometimes life is difficult like that,” he said.
“It was very hard – my first injury to be out for so long, you have to be strong every day to work hard. It was not a good time for me.”
His brief taste of the Germany team had come four years earlier.
“I played in 2013 in the national team, and 2014 they won the World Cup,” he said.
“It was a very strong team so for me the chance to play was very good.
“I’d had a good season at Mainz, and the coach Joachim Low brought me in – it was a great experience.”
The second injury that changed his life was suffered by Radoslaw Majewski, the Polish playmaker signed by Babbel for the Wanderers but who himself suffered a season-ending knee injury a few weeks ago.
That prompted Babbel to pick up the phone to a player who by then was on the outer at Eintracht Frankfurt.
“I want to play every week, and I'm 32,” Muller said.
“In Frankfurt I didn't play at all, then Markus the coach called me and we had a good conversation.
“So I talked to my wife and we said OK, we'll start a new adventure for us and go to Australia for two years.
“Now I'm looking forward to my first game, my second game … then I can say more after three or four weeks, a month (about his hopes for the future). I'm happy to be here, I want to learn about the guys in the team, make my English better, but for now I'm happy.”