Thomas Müller in fine company on road from the Bundesliga to North America
From the Bundesliga to the United States: Thomas Müller is taking a career path that many others have ventured down across the years. If legendary players like Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller were among the pioneers in making the switch, the likes of Marco Reus and Emil Forsberg have continued the happy tradition of swapping the German big leagues for the hugely popular game of soccer across the Atlantic.
With Bayern Munich legend Müller the latest to make the celebrated move, bundesliga.com charts the adventures of some other star names to have experienced a footballing life in both Germany and North America.
Arguably the most iconic face of the game at both club and international level in the Bundesrepublik, Beckenbauer - a four-time Bundesliga winner with Bayern - won everything there was to win in the game before joining the New York Cosmos in 1977.
A world and European champion at international level, Der Kaiser was also a three-time European Cup winner with Bavarian giants Bayern, so his signing for the Cosmos to play alongside another giant of the game, Pelé, was a sensational moment for the sport in the U.S., which was enjoying a significant period of growth at the time.
Beckenbauer came back to Germany to win one more top-flight title with Hamburg before returning to end his playing career at the Cosmos in 1983, amassing over 100 games for the now defunct team.
"It was the best decision in my life to come to New York. It's a mythical city, after all," the perennial winner once said of his four years stateside, adding: "I could not resist the chance to play with Pelé."
Beckenbauer's teammate with Bayern and Germany, Gerd Müller, followed his compatriot to play in what was the North American Soccer League in 1979.
Still the Bundesliga's and record champions' all-time top scorer, goal-machine Müller signed for the appropriately named Fort Lauderdale Strikers and netted 38 times in 71 appearances for the Miami-based side, before calling time on a glittering playing career.
Müller and Beckenbauer faced off in the championship final of the 1980 NASL season - known as Soccer Bowl '80 - with the latter emerging victorious when his Cosmos side beat the Strikers 3-0.
Another FIFA World Cup winner and Germany's most capped player of all time, Lothar Matthäus, won titles in both his native country with Bayern and in the United States with the MetroStars, now the New York Red Bulls. The six-time Bundesliga champion with FCB rose to prominence at Borussia Mönchengladbach and later won league and European honours at Inter Milan before relocating to New York, where he lifted the MLS Eastern Division title in 2000.
But what of some of the more recent high-profile moves from the Bundesliga to the MLS? We take a brief look at five:
Marco Reus: Borussia Dortmund to LA Galaxy
The tears understandably flowed in the Black-and-Yellow section of North Rhine-Westphalia when Reus brought the curtain down on a BVB career that took in 429 games and 170 goals.
Twice a DFB Cup winner with BVB, the now 36-year-old's last match for the side he joined from Gladbach in January 2012 was - fittingly - the 2024 UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid at Wembley Stadium, his second such showpiece in Dortmund colours.
The talented attacker joined the Galaxy that summer and soon won the first league title of his career with victory in the MLS Cup.
Watch: The story of Marco Reus
Emil Forsberg: RB Leipzig to New York Red Bulls
Swedish star Forsberg joined Leipzig when they were still on their journey to Germany's top tier. Heading from Malmö to begin life in Saxony in Bundesliga 2 early in 2015, Forsberg would have been highly ambitious if he had envisioned taking on the giants of the Bundesliga and Europe for top honours in domestic and continental competition with the same club.
Yet two DFB Cup triumphs and a DFL Supercup win later - along with a run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2020 - and the Sundsvall native had forged a career to remember at the Red Bull Arena. After 325 games and 71 goals for Die Roten Bullen, the Red Bulls of New York beckoned in 2023.
Watch: Emil Forsberg's best Bundesliga goals
Marco Fabián: Eintracht Frankfurt to Philadelphia Union
The former Mexico international is another of those to have enjoyed DFB Cup glory, although Eintracht Frankfurt's one-time No.10 didn't feature in the Eagles' famous 2018 final victory against Bayern.
Attacking midfielder Fabián moved to Frankfurt from CD Guadalajara and became a crowd favourite at Deutsche Bank Park, registering 15 goal involvements in his 43 Bundesliga games for the club. From there, it was on to MLS challengers Philadelphia Union, where he scored on his debut and later hit the winning goal in the side's first-ever play-off victory.
Roman Bürki: Dortmund to St. Louis City
Reus's teammate at BVB, Swiss goalkeeper Bürki made a name for himself as a top shot-stopper during his seven seasons at Signal Iduna Park.
Previously at Dortmund's Bundesliga rivals Freiburg, where he replaced current Germany international custodian Oliver Baumann, Bürki racked up a total of 69 clean sheets in 210 Bundesliga games during his top-flight career in Germany.
He started both of Dortmund's winning 2017 and 2021 DFB Cup finals, calling time on his BVB career in March the following year to join the new franchise at St. Louis. He has since become club captain and was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in 2023.
Watch: Bürki's masterclass vs. Gladbach
Marcel Hartel: St. Pauli to St. Louis City
Hartel twice won the Bundesliga 2 title with Arminia Bielefeld and St. Pauli - the latter triumph in 2024 helping the Hamburg-based outfit return to the Bundesliga for the first time in 13 years. It was immediately after that success that the former Cologne and Union Berlin midfielder teamed up with Bürki in St. Louis and the ex-Germany U21 international can already boast of 15 goal involvements in 33 MLS games.
The list of American superstars who have moved back to play in their homeland after sampling life in the Bundesliga is also a long and distinguished one. Three players who managed a combined total of almost 350 caps for the USMNT deserve particular praise.
Born in Bechhofen, former United States national team captain Thomas Dooley was on the books at Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke before signing for the Columbus Crew in 1997. Dooley subsequently played 22 times for the MetroStars.
Landon Donovan, meanwhile, was on Leverkusen's books and also enjoyed a stint at Bayern during the second half of the 2008/09 season, making seven appearances before returning home to the Galaxy.
The USMNT's 1990 World Cup qualifying hero Paul Caligiuri played for Meppen, Hansa Rostock and Freiburg ahead of a loan move to St. Pauli, where he played his first Bundesliga games. The Columbus Crew and later the Galaxy enjoyed Caligiuri's services as he saw out his playing days in the States.
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