1. FC Heidenheim is playing in the Bundesliga to avoid relegation early. This is also due to an improved defense – and goalkeeper Kevin Müller.
Kevin Müller, there is no other way to put it, kept his word. “We have to concede fewer goals because otherwise it will be incredibly difficult to be successful,” analyzed the 1. FC Heidenheim goalkeeper in an interview with SWR Sport at the end of October: “I personally take that to heart because I’m back there I’m also responsible.” Thought, said, done.
Gone are the days when Bundesliga promoted team Heidenheim conceded 20 goals in the first eight games of the season, in which Müller had to go behind three (against Hoffenheim), four (in Leverkusen) or even five times (against Augsburg). Since the end of November, the entire FCH backline has been performing at a level adapted to the Bundesliga level; the Schmidt team has only conceded an average of 1.17 goals per game since the twelfth matchday.
Müller and 1. FC Heidenheim: Already five times to zero
The last time Heidenheim conceded more than two goals in a league game was the 2:4 in Munich – that was on November 11th last year. One face of this new defensive strength: keeper Kevin Müller, the 32-year-old who they all only called at FCH. Mü” and who was able to keep five clean sheets in his Bundesliga debut season with Heidenheim. The first time was in the 1-0 first half win against Union Berlin, and since then the club’s number 1 has personally arrived in the upper house of German football.
“Kevin Müller is playing an outstanding season – the last few weeks and months at the top level,” his coach Frank Schmidt now praised him: “He also stops the occasional unstoppable, is always present, always focused in the game. You can also see in our goal difference, that we have stabilized defensively – and he played a huge part in that.”
Will Müller and Heidenheim soon celebrate their “tenth anniversary”?
Müller came to Heidenheim in 2015 from the second team of VfB Stuttgart and following a loan to Energie Cottbus. If the goalkeeper were to extend his contract, which expires in June 2025, he would celebrate his “tenth anniversary” on the Schlossberg next summer. He can already look back on almost a decade of football at FCH, where he first matured into a leading player in the 2nd league and now in the Bundesliga.
“The goalkeeping game is not only defined by balls saved, a goalkeeper also depends a lot on his charisma,” said the 32-year-old at the end of October – back when 1. FC Heidenheim was just starting its defensive turnaround: “It’s important to me that the team has the feeling that they can rely on me 100 percent. That’s the demand I have for myself.” Kevin Müller, there is no other way to say it at the moment, has apparently kept his word in this context too.