Thomas Muller reacts to Bayern Munich clinching their ninth consecutive Bundesliga title

Before Bayern Munich even kicked off against Borussia Monchengladbach, they were crowned Bundesliga champions for the ninth straight season by virtue of Borussia Dortmund beating RB Leipzig 3-2 in the earlier kickoff at the Westfalenstadion.

The win for Dortmund made it mathematically impossible for Die Roten Bullen to be able to catch Bayern with only two match weeks remaining, but that didn’t hamper Bayern’s motivation in the slightest against ‘Gladbach. Led by a hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski and goals from Thomas Muller, Kingsley Coman, and Leroy Sane, Bayern thrashed Marco Rose’s side 6-0 at the Allianz Arena, stamping their authority on their ninth straight league title.

For Muller, this is personally his tenth Bundesliga title with Bayern, having won the first back in the 2009/10 season. Under Jurgen Klopp, Dortmund won the title in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, but since then, it’s been all Bayern. Speaking after the match, Muller said that, as a boy, he never would’ve dreamed of wining ten titles with Bayern (Tz). “You don’t dream that at all. When you go out as a little boy, you don’t think you’ll be playing for FC Bayern one day. That’s when you’re happy to get tickets to the stadium,” he said.

Having won his tenth title with Bayern, Muller reflected on the past decade of the club and how much it’s grown since he’s been there. Their domestic dominance has been thoroughly impressive, but he knows that it takes a well-oiled team to reach levels of success like that. “It’s a development of the whole club in the last ten to twelve years. We have also always had a great team. It’s not like I’m going to get the titles on my own,” he explained.

Of course, Muller and Bayern will still be disappointed to have been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal so early on and the Champions League in the quarter-finals, but the eternal hunger to win never weakens. Their 6-0 thrashing of ‘Gladbach even after knowing they were Bundesliga champions based on the Dortmund-Leipzig result was a testament to that eternal hunger amongst the squad. “It’s not about the title or the cup. You want to win every game. It’s about the thrill of being better than the other team. But that thrill doesn’t last very long, which is why the hunger is always so great,” Muller urged.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

As far as becoming “sofameisters,” Muller said it made no difference to all of the players in the squad, as winning the title is always the goal at the onset of each given season. How they win it, specifically, doesn’t matter as much and it clearly didn’t distract them at all against ‘Gladbach. “Many say that if you make it with your own victory, it is more beautiful. Nonsense. It’s always awesome when you make it. The mood in the dressing room was very relaxed. But we still had a job to do,” he said.

Lewandowski’s hat-trick also took him to 39 Bundesliga goals on the season and he’s now only two goals away from breaking Gerd Muller’s single season record of 40 goals. It was clear that his teammates were doing everything they could to tee him up and Muller jokingly acknowledged how easily noticeable that was. “You could get the impression today...,” he said before letting out a characteristic chuckle.