He continued to appear in friendlies across that spring, including scoring his first goal for the National team against East Germany in a 3–0 home win.

[2] Müller had been substituted by this point and his replacement, Zico, had missed a penalty (actually stopped by Joël Bats) in normal time with the scores level.

He was then left out of Brazil's victory in the 1989 Copa America, but returned to the side in time to play in the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

By this time, Brazil's favoured strikers were Romario and Bebeto, and so Müller's contributions were limited to a nine-minute substitute appearance against Cameroon in the first round.

His function as a second striker was primarily that of making passes, serving his teammates, and creating goalscoring opportunities or providing assists, but he was also capable of playing as a striker, due to his effectiveness on counter-attacks, as well as his ability to make runs from the left flank or cut into the centre to strike on goal with his stronger foot.