Patrick Müller (born 17 December 1976) is a Swiss former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a defender.

Club career

Meyrin, Servette

Born in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, to

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

father and

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

mother from

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Müller began his children's football with local club

FC Meyrin Football Club Meyrin is a football (soccer), football team based in Meyrin in Switzerland. They currently play in the Swiss 1. Liga (football), 1. Liga, the third tier of the Swiss Football Association, Swiss football pyramid. Meyrin were promot ...

before he moved to the youth department of

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

in 1994. One year later he advanced to their first team and immediately became regular starter. In 1998 he received his first international call up. In the 1998–99 Nationalliga A season he won the Swiss championship with Servette.

Juventus

While Müller was playing in one of his first international matches, he was watched by a scout from

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

and soon afterwards offered a contract. Müller signed for five-years and his contract would have run from January 1999, but Müller didn't want to make the move until the summer. It never came to a match or a training with Juve, but they loaned him out inside Switzerland.

Grasshoppers

Only a few weeks after signing with Juve, Müller signed a loan contact with

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Immediately he was a starter in their team. The loan contract ran over one year, but in summer 1999 GC bought Müller out of this contract and signed him definatively. Then on 24 May 2000 it was announced that Müller would leave GC and join

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

on a four-year contract. It was also reported that the transfer fee was the equivalent of 12.75 million Swiss francs, which was the highest amount ever paid for a Swiss player to that time.

Lyon

Müller's talent had been noted by the French club

, who signed him in summer 2000. In his first season with Lyon they became league runners-up and the following year they won the championship. They repeated this success three consecutive times.

Mallorca

In summer 2004 Müller signed for Spanish club

Real Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

on a free transfer. However, the deal never worked out and Müller later regarded his move as set back in his career. Because he only had six appearances, two of which as substitute, after just a few months he ended the contact with the club prematurely.

Basel

On 7 January 2005 it was announced that Müller had signed for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

on a two-and-a-half year contract. He joined Basel's first team during the winter break of their 2004–05 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

. After playing in seven test games, Müller played his debut for the club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 17 February 2005 as Basel played a goalless draw with

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional football club based in Lille, Hauts-de-France that competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French football. Lille has played its ...

in the round of 32 in the

2004–05 UEFA Cup The 2004–05 UEFA Cup was the 34th edition of the UEFA Cup. The format of the competition had changed from previous seasons, replacing that from the previous one after the abolition of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999; an extra qualifying round was ...

. He played his domestic league debut with the team just three days later on 20 February, in the away game in the

Espenmoos Espenmoos Stadium, is a football stadium in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It was the home ground of the FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gal ...

as Basel were defeated 3–1 by

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

. Basel completed all the 2004–05 Super League season's seventeen home games undefeated, winning thirteen and drawing four. They ended the season as Swiss champions with 10 points advantage over second placed

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thoune) ...

. During the winter break of the following season, former club Lyon again showed interest in the defender. On 26 January 2006 the deal was completed. During his time with the club, Müller played a total of 51 games for Basel scoring one goal. 28 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

, two in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, seven in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

and 14 were friendly games. He scored his goal during the test games.

Lyon

Müller rejoined

during the winter break of the

2005–06 Ligue 1 Olympique Lyonnais won Ligue 1 season 2005–06 of the French Association Football League with 84 points. Participating teams * Ajaccio * Auxerre * Bordeaux * Le Mans * Lens * Lille * Lyon * Marseille * Metz * Monaco * Nancy * Nantes * N ...

season. At the end of the season Müller again won the championship with the club. Again they repeated this success three consecutive times. The first time Müller was a regular starter, but in the other two he was only in supporting roles and did not play very often.

Monaco

On 31 August 2008 Müller moved from Lyon to

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

on a free transfer and he signed a two year contract with them. However, after a few appearances he was no longer considered for the first team. He played his last game in spring 2009. But, despite looking for a new club he was not successful and he remained with the club for the duration of the contract.

International career

Müller played for the

Swiss national football team The Switzerland national football team (german: Schweizer Fussballnationalmannschaft, it, Nazionale di calcio della Svizzera, french: Équipe nationale suisse de football, rm, Squadra naziunala da ballape da la Svizra) represents Switzerland ...

on a regular basis and was called into the squad for the 2006 World Cup. He is infamous for several incidents where he blocked balls with his hands during the 2006 World Cup. He represented the national team at

2008 UEFA Euro The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

, where the team showed good performance in the tournament, achieving the best result at the time.

Personal life

Müller has a wife named Katia and has two children, daughter Norah (born 30 April 2004) and son Dan (born 5 March 2006). He holds dual nationality, Swiss and Austrian.Doppelpass ins rot-weiß-rote Abseits

Honours

;Lyon *

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

: 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

: 2007-08 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

: 2000-01 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

;Basel *

: 2004–05

References

Sources

* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Patrick Living people 1976 births Men's association football defenders Swiss men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in France Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Switzerland men's international footballers FC Meyrin players Servette FC players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Olympique Lyonnais players RCD Mallorca players FC Basel players AS Monaco FC players La Liga players Swiss Super League players Ligue 1 players UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Swiss-German people Swiss expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco Footballers from Geneva