Whether it really belonged to him, in these 36 years of hiding, is and remains a mystery into which delving into would be equally risky because Marco Mullera former footballer and professional robber, has gone through three decades of lies, manipulations and as many identities to be able to deceive the police and Swiss justice.
He decided to leave the scene with a tragic, dramatic epilogue that must be included in an almost textbook narrative if it were not for the fact that it is a suicide and a man who, at 71 years oldand an existence between football and crime, decided to end his life like this. Under a train.
Marco Muller, the body found near the tracks is his
Traces of that footballing past of the former Swiss midfielder can be found on Swiss sites which narrate his exploits in retrospect, when Marco Muller he was already a protagonist of the news, but a black one. On the contrary very black. In the seventies he had also played for Young Boysa glorious Swiss club that had raised him to the idol of the masses who succeeded in the secular celebration of Sunday.
Then his descent into the criminal world (not that it was the only player involved in illegal acts) from which he re-emerged a few weeks ago, for real only in these hours when also on the Corriere del Ticino his death was made official and the identification of the unfortunate man, found near the tracks, as Marco Muller.
He was 71 years old when, in all likelihood, he decided to end his life as a fugitive here: his body was found on the tracks of a railway near Bassecourthis hometown of Canton of Jura.
According to the site, the Power of attorneyafter the analyzes on the corpse which allowed its identification on the basis of DNAruled out the involvement of third parties, confirming the suicide theory which remains the most accepted to date.
The inaction after saying goodbye to football
There was an era in which this robber, a fugitive we repeat for 36 years, he believed and dreamed that football could tear him away from an existence that perhaps was already in store for him. His football career had been typical: he had also played in the youth teams of the Swiss national team, contracted with some clubs. His profile, as a midfielder and defender if necessary, is still present on transfermarktwhen you type and scroll through the formation of Young Boys season 1973/74. Finally, the void.
From that season onwards, there are no longer any traces or fragments of football memory in the searchable databases relating to that era in which the 19-year-old seemed close to a career on the playing field. Apart from a few generic ones team photoin which it is difficult to superimpose those youthful features on the photo spread on social media.
A very rare image of the Young Boys lineup dating back to the 1973/1974 season
Yet a myth was also built, a journalistic narrative that Muller at the time was capable of pulling off important coups without firing a shot in an era marked, unfortunately, by robberies that often ended dangerously and resulted in firefights. Which Muller he had always avoided, often earning names and descriptions distant from the stereotype of the common criminal in the bank and van heists: a characteristic that earned him the nickname of «Robin Hood».
In total, it is estimated that his loot amounted to to three million francs. Three million francs which, however, were never found. His inaction accompanied him until the end of his days, after always managing to escape the authorities, even with a double escape.
The double escape from prison
The first time he escaped from prison in the cantonal capital of Jura (detained for robberies in Jura itself and in Neuchatel). The second escape was from the penitentiary of ThorbergIn the canton of Bernwhere he had been locked up to be tried after two robberies of armored vehicles in the surrounding area of Geneva And Delémont.
However, according to a former accomplice of his he quotes from Corriere del Ticino, André Jäggi, Müller had never returned to Switzerland until before his death. Much less in the canton of Jura.
“He wasn’t stupid. Even in disguise, here they would have recognized him just by the way he walked.”
36 years without knowing anything
For years the Swiss police had followed his trail in France, certain that the former footballer was hiding in that country. Others claim that he has built a second life in Belgium, and that he would return to Bassecourt occasionally.
Contrasting theses and which will remain so, given that the DNA examination leaves no doubts about his identity and the farewell to Robin Hood, to Lupine and, above all, to Marco Muller. The footballer slipped into a life of crime.
