MULLER, HOENESS & RUMMENIGGE

Gerd Muller, Uli Hoeness and Karl- Heinz Rummenigge have a centre- back to thank for their legacy. In the 1974 European Cup Final against Atletico Madrid, Ol’ Big Ears was slipping away from Bayern Munich in Brussels when Hans- Georg Schwarzenbeck tried his luck from distance in the last minute of extra time.

Hoeness and Muller scored two apiece in the replay, then lost 5- 0 to Monchengladbach the following day while still drunk. Die Roten relied on their close- knit harmony. “We had an instinctive understanding,” midfielder Franz Roth claimed. “It helped that we were all from Munich or nearby.”

Hoeness and Muller seemed particularly telepathic. The former was an architect in open spaces, the latter an assassin when there was seemingly no room to be found. When youngster Rummenigge moved 350 miles south from Borussia Lippstadt in 1974, he slotted in like he’d grown up there, too. They were destructive. Bayern retained their European Cup against Leeds, before the trio started the 1976 final against Saint- Etienne, making it three in a row.

Together and apart, they helped shape the lineage of German football.