That means Havertz has broken the record previously held by Dieter Müller, who reached the 35 goals mark in 1975 at the age of 21 and 18 days. Bayer04.de spoke to Müller about his record being broken.
Mr Müller, for 45 years you were the youngest player to score 35 goals in the Bundesliga. What did the record mean to you?
Müller: I was able to achieve a number of Bundesliga records in my career, including six goals in a Bundesliga match. To be honest, I wasn't really aware that I still held the record. It's okay, it's not going to get me down (he laughs). Instead, I'm happy for Kai Havertz.
What thoughts went through your mind when Kai Havertz broke your record?
It was clear to me, now we have this generation of impressive, young players, that the record could be broken one day.
How do you see the current development of our number 29?
Kai is a great lad and a very good footballer. An incredible talent and Leverkusen can be really happy to have a player like him in their ranks. He is very versatile in the attack and has a good finish. The 35 goals don't happen by accident.
What similarities and differences do you see between yourself at the age of 21 and Havertz today?
I recently published my biography and I gave several interviews. I was asked by one journalist what I thought my market value would be today. A player like Havertz already has a market value of many millions of euros at his young age, so I've probably played at the wrong time (he laughs). Players today are clearly more confident. I was more of a classic centre forward, similar to Rudi Völler. Havertz is a completely different type of player from me and he can play in different positions in attack. Nevertheless, we both regularly scored our goals of course.
Profile:
Dieter Müller was born in Offenbach on 1 April 1954. After playing for the youth teams at Kickers Offenbach, he played for the first team at OFC. From 1973 to 1981, he played for FC Köln where he made 248 appearances and scored 159 goals – including six in the game against Werder Bremen on 17 August 1977. Müller also made twelve international appearances for Germany, scoring nine goals for his country.
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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