Gerd Müller was born in the Swabian town of Nördlingen on 3 November 1945. Almost 62 years later, on 19 July 2008, one of the greatest strikers the world has ever seen was suitably honoured by his town of birth with the official renaming of the Rieser Sportpark as the Gerd-Müller-Stadion. "I just think it's tremendous," the town's most famous son commented as he acknowledged the accolade.
The player revered worldwide as 'Der Bomber', the all-time leading scorer both at Bayern and for Germany, was present in person at the renaming ceremony. The clock showed 4.30 pm as the stadium scoreboard displayed the new name for the first time, prompting rapturous applause from the 10,500 capacity crowd.
Lahm and Co still absent
The spectators had come to watch Gerd Müller's latest successors in Bayern's famous red jerseys. Jürgen Klinsmann and his team contested a friendly against local heroes TSV Nördlingen, celebrating their centenary as a football club this year.
Bayern emerged from an entertaining 90 minutes with a routine 8-0 victory against the side relegated from the seventh footballing tier last term, but although his men failed to score a consolation goal, TSV coach Norbert Brandt will not have been unhappy afterwards. "Anything under double figures will rate as a success," he said beforehand.
FCB in 3-4-3 formation
As previously announced, Klinsmann declined to select the seven stars who only returned from Euro 2008 duties last Thursday. José Sosa (pre-Olympics training) and Zé Roberto (family bereavement) were also excused. By contrast, Lucio, Martin Demichelis and Willy Sagnol made first pre-season warm-up appearances after sitting out last week's 7-1 win against Lippstadt.
Making the most of the players available to him, Klinsmann sent out his side in an unusual 3-4-3 formation. Mark van Bommel, named captain in Lippstadt and again asked to lead the team in Nördlingen, opened the scoring, with Joseph Ngwenya and Andreas Ottl stretching the advantage before half-time. Gerd Müller's namesake Thomas was forced to quit the action with injury after just half an hour to be replaced by fellow reserve starlet Deniz Yilmaz.
Müller alongside Klinsmann
The youngster now showed off the instinctive scoring skills which made Gerd Müller so famous, striking a brace to make the score 5-0 shortly after the interval, before Demichelis put his side six clear. Ngwenya also added a second of his own, before Yimaz completed his hat-trick and rounded off the scoring for the day with Bayern's eighth. A relaxed and cheerful Gerd Müller enjoyed the free-scoring action from his seat alongside Jürgen Klinsmann in the dug-out.
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