The much-awaited documentary is here finally and we need to talk about it.
It has been a minute since I wrote about Bayern Munich or Thomas Müller.
However, like a certain yesteryear part-time footballer, full-time kung fu master once said, never can you change your favourite football team. My blood continues to run Roten and the team continues to Gegenpress more on my blood vessels than on the pitch. And as always, the little fist-sized chunk of muscle in my chest continues to beat for Thomas Müller.
Being a prominent Müller Mafia member, the news of this documentary was music to my ears. The man has been an extremely prominent figure in my development as a person. If there is anything that Thomas has taught me in life, it is that my own sense of duty and expectations supersede others’ perception of what I should be doing. Do it tired, do it worried, but do it anyway.
The documentary is in essence, about Thomas’ career, from his humble beginnings in Pähl, Oberbayern till the Germany vs Spain Euros fixture in 2024. It runs in parallels, switching between the past and the present but is clear enough with each switch since there are title cards showing the particulars of each incident.
A nice touch the makers added was the animation showcasing his career as a set of trading cards, with each card mentioning the year and an image of his from that season.
German Sports Documentary or Indian Commercial Cinema?
As a South Indian with a passion for movies, I am heavily influenced by the film culture here with the larger-than-life portrayals of heroism, blatant hero worship, mass dialogues and the deafening hooting and cheering following such dialogues.
In the introductory scenes, the documentary feels more like Indian commercial cinema, and not much like a grounded football documentary. The Müller Mafia will certainly enjoy this aspect, but it may not be up to everyone else’s tastes. I found myself rewatching these instances multiple times, just to savor the shooting style, the dialogues and of course, the man himself.
The documentary features a lot of well-known figures, from his former and current teammates to coaches.
The players like Robert Lewandowski, Jamal Musiala and Bastian Schweinsteiger praise Thomas’ intellect and acumen when it comes to the game. This is nothing new, since it has been known for long the Raumdeuter is a master tactician and a football genius.
Bayern higher-ups Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß raved about the Weltmeister. The coaches Hermann Gerland, Pep Guardiola, Louis van Gaal, Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick were no exception; they had such incredible things to say about Thomas, that I found myself hooting like I was in a movie theatre.
“Thomas has rarely played spectacularly. Ribéry played spectacularly. Robben played spectacularly. But in the end it was: Who scored the goals? Thomas. Who pushed the ball across so that the center forward could put it in? Thomas,” said Hoeneß.
The callbacks to his exceptional goals and performances from the past were a much-needed pump of serotonin. If you feel hopeless and are stuck pondering about your loyalties to this team, these sequences are perfect. They remind you that you belong in the stands in the Allianz alongside the Südkurve, the crowds in Säbener Straße and amongst an ocean of people, with different goals, dreams and worries but with one thing anchoring them together — the ‘Mia San Mia’ mentality.
Photo by Stefan Matzke – sampics/Corbis via Getty Images
The unseen side of Thomas Müller
The documentary shows a never-seen-before side of Thomas, speaking his mind without a filter. For instance, his candid critiques of Julian Nagelsmann’s coaching style in die Mannschaft were shocking. I had always assumed that Thomas would be the last person to ever critique a coach, considering the way he has handled being benched in the past. His statements about how Nagelsmann was unnecessarily complicating tactics and essentially losing them games after the Friendly against Austria in November 2023 were surprising. He further had harsh comments on the team’s defense and also on the team itself. It is certain that no fan would ever anticipate Thomas speaking so bluntly.
Photo by Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images
Another surprising aspect was Thomas’ response when asked by a fan, what his favorite game was. He explained that it was the 2012 Champions League final against Chelsea FC since he had scored the first goal. He elaborated that the goal had driven hope into the hearts of the millions of fans and the team itself and hence, it was his favorite, despite the end result of the game.
The Müller Family
Family is the center of Thomas’ world and the documentary truly did justice to this aspect. The camera follows his parents, younger brother Simon and wife Lisa. The portrayals of everyday events such as conversations with his parents and horse rides with Lisa were beautifully done. Mama Müller makes a comment about how people who succeed tend to forget where they came from, and implies Thomas is far from letting success get into his head.
The intimate portrayals of his home life remind me of my own family and the dynamics we share. Dinner table exchanges in the Müller household are heavily centered around Thomas’ career. In-depth discussions about how he plays and the teams’ conditions are as relevant as small talk. In one instance, after a particularly bad game, when his family asks how he felt about the game, Thomas casually responds by asking if the soup wasn’t that hot in case he might toss it at someone’s face (in anger). In essence, the portrayal of his family doesn’t feel scripted or fake like a reality TV family, but genuine and authentic.
The documentary essentially highlights a very important point — his family cares about his career as much as he does. The Müllers are an exceptional family — their sheer analytical skills are baffling. It is clear that when it comes to football, the apple fell right from the tree onto the ground where the tree was once just a seed.
(There are also a few scenes involving apples where he is shown picking them from their home apple tree.)
Papa and Mama Müller’s concern for their son, their distaste towards media critiques and their sheer hatred for the loud and unnecessary attention they receive, whether positive or negative, shines beautifully through the screenplay. Every word they speak to and about their son makes the documentary worth watching.
Simon Müller, his younger brother, is a very important character who deserves all the appreciation in the world.
We all know of the horrifying portrayals of media all over the world, displaying ugly family disputes, and showcasing siblings turning barbaric towards each other when individual motivations clash. And of course, being Indian, I get to hear and watch brotherly disputes left, right, and center. In my country, gossip and word of ear is extremely valuable as it provides the fast paced, heavily burdened life with much-needed entertainment.
One may think — Simon, the bigger fan of Bayern, is stuck watching his elder brother have an illustrious career; mustn’t he be at least remotely jealous?
And the answer is no. In sharp contrast to the ugliness of this world stands a silver lining of a man. A man who is simply happy for his elder brother’s happiness and success. Simon is a total delight to watch and listen to. If you take anything away from this review, please take it as your sign to watch the documentary at least for the family dynamic.
The ever-beautiful, talented and charming Lisa Müller is the joy of my life and watching her talk has made my week. No words are enough to describe the light she brings into every scene she is in.
Photo by Stefan Matzke – sampics/Getty Images
The perils of being Thomas Müller in 2024
The documentary is also often extremely morbid. It reminds you of the past losses, the days Thomas stayed on the bench and the infrequent blunders he has made in his otherwise perfect career.
It shows his despair, his hurt, the feeling of being alien in the very place he has called home for close to two decades. The worries of being an aging player, the doubts of whether he should pack his bags and leave to a retirement league and the unadulterated rage that HIS FC Bayern and HIS die Mannschaft were seeing more losses than wins haunt him heavily.
His course with the national team, from his glorious maiden season to fading into almost an obscurity was displayed with some blunt commentary. Hanging up his boots, seems closer than the days his boots ricocheted balls into far posts.
However, these felt more like pointers being checked off a list. The audience is never really drawn into the emotions that they are supposed to experience, given the nature of the subject. It is of a once-glorious footballer with an illustrious career, facing the inevitable end of the tunnel every player is privy to. A documentary that intends to go intimately into what it means to be Müller in 2024, really doesn’t showcase enough for you to understand the gravity of the situation if you weren’t already a Bayern or Müller fan.
My love for Thomas made it genuinely hard to watch his struggles. However, the words ‘Weil guten wie in Schlecten Zeiten, zu einander stehen’ echoed in my head. So I stayed, through the tears, through the anguish, all just for the man. I reminded myself that the documentary’s closing credits mean nothing for Müller’s career, for he will still play. There exists a tiny glowing hope in my chest that this isn’t over.
And as it is the nature of the Raumdeuter, he will win.
Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Concluding thoughts
It is rather poetic that the duration is just one minute short of 90. This documentary too, is a little short of what could’ve made it complete. The focus on the family dynamic was done extraordinarily but on the overall, the documentary lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that could’ve made it a standout.
It meanders in multiple directions and never really hits the mark on anything except the family. At instances, it is massy, hyping up Müller with a heavy background score. When the documentary comes back to present day, showing his struggles, it never really feels as heavy as it should. Unless you were a die-hard Mafia member, you would probably not empathize with his state of affairs.
In essence, the documentary is like an IKEA product where all the required parts are available and the audience is expected to simply figure out how to piece everything together by themselves.
The ending was rather abrupt for my liking and felt too distant from the introductory sequences. Thomas says that his aim was to be a part of the Euros at home and he achieved it, which hardly feels like something he would say. The documentary ends with him playing golf and talking about the fact that the adrenaline of playing games and scoring goals was no longer available to him. The ending could have tied at least remotely into the narrative that he really is ‘one of a kind’, despite the general state of his career at present.
This could have been something great, with a good rewatch potential, had it been directed well. However, the documentary, unlike its name, is not one of a kind, as it falls into an ocean of average content, when so much more was expected.
