In the rolling foothills of the Bavarian alps, where cows lazily chew grass on sun-drenched meadows, Germany and Bayern Munich star Thomas Muller is the pride of his ex-club TSV Pahl.
“Did you know that the nicest, most popular and probably Germany’s best current footballer – Thomas Muller – learnt to play football in the youth teams of TSV Pahl until he was 10?,” the club proudly boasts on its website as it invites youth recruits.
Many young Bavarians would love to follow Muller's path and lift the Champions League and World Cup for club and country.
Pahl, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Munich, is where Muller, 26, grew up and played football before joining Bayern’s academy, just before his 11th birthday.
He won the 2013 treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and cup titles with Bayern then the 2014 World Cup with Die Mannschaft and has made more than 70 appearances for Germany since his 2010 debut.
He scored 20 goals in 31 league games for Bayern last season and is the all-time leading German goal-scorer in Europe with 36 Champions League goals over nine seasons.
Muller’s parents and relatives still live in Pahl.
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Younger brother Simon is an attacking midfielder for TSV’s first team in the Bavarian regional league and has a backroom job at FC Bayern.
Thomas Muller lives near Pahl, but often returns home to play cards with friends and watch his brother play.
“He’s the same person he always was, very grounded. He doesn’t act like a star at all,” his former coach at TSV Pahl Wolfgang Czerwenka told AFP.
“We’re all very proud of him and he hasn’t forgotten us. Through his connections, new balls or sets of playing shirts often find their way here.”
When TSV struggled to replace the clubhouse roof, Muller donated €20,000 (Dh82,377) so the work could go ahead.
A group from TSV Pahl regularly travel to Bayern’s games – home and away – to watch Muller play.
“You could see in the first few years that he had talent,” Alfred Greiner, who runs TSV’s football section, told AFP.
“He worked hard, could do things the other children couldn’t and never seemed to get injured.”
Even today, Muller is rarely injured.
He last missed a few games with a torn leg muscle in the 2013/14 season and picked up only a couple of knocks last season.
Whether his robustness is down to the Bavarian air is debatable. But Muller would look just as comfortable bantering with locals as he does scoring goals for Bayern and Germany.
“He’s just as polite now as he was as a boy, he’s always on the go with FC Bayern, but when he comes to visit, he often stops for a chat,” added Greiner.
“People sometimes mistake his lack of attention on them for arrogance, but he simply can’t talk to everyone who wants to speak to him.”
Czerwenka was Muller’s coach at TSV in the 1999/2000 season before he joined Bayern’s academy.
“Word had got around in the local clubs that we had an exceptional footballer,” remembered Czerwenka.
“He was technically very strong and incredibly fast.
“The team scored something like 160 goals that season. Although he was tightly marked, Thomas created space for others to score and still ended up scoring more than 100 goals himself.
“One time, we were playing away to the international school at Starnberg (the neighbouring town).
“They were second to us in the league and the match would decide the title.
“We took Thomas, even though he was a year younger than the other boys, and he was on the bench for the first-half.
“It was 1-0 at the break, but Thomas played the second half, scored four goals and set up the other one. We won 5-1,” added Czerwenka with a smile.
Muller was the pride of Pahl when he made his breakthrough at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, finishing top scorer and best young player just before his 21st birthday.
TSV Pahl will again be following their local hero at Euro 2016.
“When there’s a big game on in mid-week, the first team organise their training for another day so they can watch on the clubhouse’s TV,” said Czerwenka.
“You can be sure the place will be full for Germany’s games in France this summer.”
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