Just how much weight that rating carries is shown by comparison: a handicap earned in Argentina or England counts for considerably more than one from the German-speaking world — a 3-goaler from Switzerland would rate as a 2 in England at best. Müller’s 5 was earned on the toughest stage in global polo: in the Argentine autumn season he reached the final of the Abierto de Tortugas (22 goals) — alongside Facundo Pieres — and the Abierto de Pilar Chico, at 28 goals the highest-level tournament of the autumn season. In February, he also won the New Zealand Open in Cleveland.
And yet, despite his achievements, Müller is not a professional polo player. The 25-year-old studies economics at the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires — polo is his passion, not his profession. He sat on a horse for the first time aged 15, and a single polo lesson was enough to hook him for good. Ten years later, he tops the handicap list of the German-speaking world — rated higher than any other active player. Thomas Winter long held a 5 goal handicap in Germany, but that rating was never carried anywhere internationally. Müller’s 5 stands where polo is played at its most demanding.