With 18 teams competing in the German Bundesliga, and each club playing the other 17 twice, every team plays a total of 34 matches each season. This means that clubs would have played 17 games each at the halfway mark of each season.
In the 1968-69 season of the Bundesliga, Germany’s Gerd Muller, playing for Bayern Munich, scored a record 20 goals in the first half of the season. That record stood for over 50 years, only to be broken in the 2020-21 season by Robert Lewandowski.
Polish striker Lewandowski, also playing for Bayern Munich now, notched up 22 goals in the first 17 league games this season.
A look at Lewandowski and Muller..
Having drawn level with Gerd Muller’s record in Bayern Munich’s 3-2 defeat away against Borussia
Monchengladbach on January 9, Lewandowski made the record his own on January 17, with a goal in the seventh minute in their 2-1 victory over Freiburg.
Lewandowski took his tally to 22 at the halfway mark of the season when he scored from the penalty spot to give his side a 1-0 win away against Augsburg.
Records, awards and goals have been coming thick and fast for Lewandowski, who, at 32, seems to be improving with age. He became just the third footballer to notch up 250 Bundesliga goals in December 2020, before he went on to pick up FIFA’S “The Best” prize being the top footballer of the year.
He seems to be continuing in 2021 from where he left off in 2020 as he first claimed the record for Bundesliga’s halfway mark and then scored his 500th career goal (club and country) in Bayern’s 4-0 win over Schalke on January 24.
With no signs of letting up, Lewandowski might well go past Muller’s record for most goals scored in a season, set in 1971-72.
Seen here in what looks almost like a ballerina pose, Gerd Muller surely did make opponents dance to his tunes. He set innumerable records in his Bundesliga career with Bayern, which included the 20 goals he scored in the first half of the 1968-69 season. His Bundesliga goals tally (365) is beyond reach for most and he also holds the record for most goals scored in a single Bundesliga season – 40 in 1971-72.
Picture Credit : Google