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 lea ...

who played as a defender. In his fifteen-year professional career, Müller played for football clubs in Switzerland, France, and Spain, including two spells with

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Club career

Meyrin, Servette

Born in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, to

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

father and

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

mother from

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Müller began his children's football with local club

FC Meyrin Meyrin Football Club is a football team based in Meyrin in Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Ge ...

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 Teams in the Swiss National League A played 22 games in the 1998–99 football season, with an eight-team playoff. Overview The Qualification Round to the League season 2001–02 was contested by twelve teams. The first eight teams of the First ...

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 , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

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 amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. 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 definitively. 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 French professional association football, football club based in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. With origins dating back to 1899, they were founded in 1950 and p ...

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. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands. Founded on ...

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 professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

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. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1999 to 2009, winning four Swiss Super Leagues and four Swiss Cups. As ...

. 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 association football, football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of Football in Franc ...

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 Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, German ...

as Basel were defeated 3–1 by St. Gallen. 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 Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

. 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 Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, two in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, seven in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

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 * Nice ...

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, commonly referred to as AS Monaco (), is a professional football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. Although not in France, they are a member of the French Football Federation (FFF) and currently ...

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 Switzerland national team on a regular basis and was called into the squad for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

. 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 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

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

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

: 2007-08 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

: 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 cup, super cups found in many other count ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

;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 Zurich 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