Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller talks about individual awards, assist race with PSG star Lionel Messi

Thomas Müller has been the undisputed assist maestro in Europe’s top five leagues for the past few years. There’s Paris Saint-Germain star Lionel Messi trying to catch up with the Raumdeuter but he needs another couple dozen to move up the chart.

Speaking to Sport Bild, the Bayern Munich star commented on being ahead of the Argentine superstar in the race for the most number of assists and how such an achievement makes him feel.

“As far as assist stats are concerned, that’s probably the case at the moment. If you look at the stats from the past three years, I’m even ahead of Messi. It’s a huge motivation for me to be competing with the best players in the world. I’ve been doing that since my breakthrough in 2010. But a direct comparison with Messi makes little sense,” Müller said.

The German international has had a commendable career and it is only fair to say that it just flies under the radar most of the time.

“What Messi and Ronaldo have been doing in the past 15 years, and Lewy for several years is out of this world. Nevertheless, I’m of course trying to stick myself there a bit,” added Müller.

Regardless of his performances and the stats he has to support it, Müller almost never gets a mention in individual awards and honors. His exclusion from the Ballon d’Or top 30 last year is one of the thousand reasons why people tend to not take the award seriously anymore.

Does Müller care about the individual awards? You’re right, he doesn’t. Being the team player and leader that he is, it doesn’t come as a surprise that he enjoys winning matches and titles with the team more than anything else.

He commented, “I have mixed feelings about [winning individual awards]. If you want to win the biggest individual awards, everything has to fit. There are maybe many players with my stats who can’t 100% compete, but they still have great individual abilities.”

“These awards are always about being brilliant, having a special flair, and being marketable on an international level. German football is not at the top at the moment because the Bundesliga has not been doing well recently. Our Champions League win in 2020 was rather an exception,” Müller explained further.

He has bagged a total of 64 assists since 2018/19 season — 17 more than Messi, who is in the second position.

(Quotes via @iMiaSanMia)