Miroslav Klose
What is Miroslav Klose known for in the FIFA World Cup?
Which clubs did Miroslav Klose play for during his career?
What were Miroslav Klose’s achievements with the German national team?
What coaching roles has Miroslav Klose held after retiring as a player?
How did Miroslav Klose’s international career begin?
Miroslav Klose (born June 9, 1978, Opole, Poland) is a retired German football (soccer) player who played in the center forward position as a striker. Klose is the all-time leading goal scorer for the German men’s national team. He is the third highest goal scorer in the history of the men’s FIFA World Cup tournament after Lionel Messi of Argentina and France’s Kylian Mbappé. Klose held the record as the World Cup’s all-time top scorer until the 2026 edition of the tournament, when Mbappé and Messi increased their total goals to 22 and 21, respectively, overtaking Klose’s tally of 16. Klose was part of the German national team that won the World Cup in 2014. He has won the Bundesliga, Germany’s premier football league championship, twice (2007–08 and 2009–10) with Bayern Munich, as well as the Coppa Italia, Italy’s main domestic knockout cup competition, once (2012–13) with Lazio.
Early life
Klose was born in Opole, Poland, in the Silesian region of central Europe. His parents were top athletes: His father, Josef Klose, played for the French professional football club Auxerre, and his mother, Barbara Jez, represented the Polish women’s national handball team.
Klose and his family lived in France until his father’s retirement and moved to Kusel, West Germany, when he was seven. It was here that Klose developed his football skills with the teams SG Blaubach-Diedelkopf and FC Homburg, which then played in the West German seventh and fifth tiers, respectively. Unlike many elite footballers, Klose did not begin his professional career until his early 20s. He was once rejected by a local sports school for his slight build.
Club career
Klose joined his first professional squad in 1998 at the age of 20, becoming a reserve with FC Homburg. A year later he joined 1. FC Kaiserslautern, playing on its second team, and eventually making his debut in the top-tier Bundesliga in April 2000. His breakout year came in the 2001–02 season when he scored 16 goals. His performance for the club earned him a place in Germany’s squad for the 2002 World Cup.
Klose signed a four-year contract with top-tier Bundesliga club Werder Bremen for a €5 million ($6.24 million) transfer fee in March 2004. His team debut came on August 6, 2004, in a 1–0 victory against Schalke 04. Klose scored his first goal for Werder Bremen on August 29 in a match against VfL Wolfsburg. He scored 15 goals that season, followed by 25 and 13 goals in the next two seasons, respectively. Klose won the Bundesliga Golden Boot in the 2005–06 season as the highest scorer, netting 25 goals, and was named German Footballer of the Year in 2006 for his performance that season.
On June 26, 2007, Klose transferred to Bayern Munich, by far the most successful club in Bundesliga history, signing a four-year contract. He helped Bayern Munich win the Bundesliga and the German Cup in his first and third seasons. He scored the deciding goal in the club’s win in the 2010 German Supercup, in which the best two teams of the previous season compete. He was part of the Bayern Munich squad that reached the 2010 UEFA Champions League final, where the club lost 2–0 to Inter Milan. Klose left Bayern Munich at the end of the 2010–11 season.
Klose then moved to the Italian Serie A league, signing a three-year contract with Lazio in June 2011. One of the highlights of his playing career with Lazio was when he scored five goals in one match against Bologna on May 5, 2013—the first player to do so in Serie A since 1986. He scored his final goal for Lazio on May 15, 2016, on a penalty kick against Fiorentina. He tallied 64 goals during his career for Lazio and won the Coppa Italia with the team in 2013.
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International career
Although Klose enjoyed a successful club career, some of his greatest performances came in international football. In 2001 Poland was interested in Klose playing for its national team as he held dual citizenship in Poland and Germany. But he declined to play for Poland and instead joined Germany, then under former World Cup winner Rudi Völler. Klose made his international debut on March 24, 2001, in a World Cup qualifier against Albania. He headed in the winning goal in a 2–1 victory. In the 2002 World Cup, Klose headed in all five of his goals in the tournament, including a hat trick in his World Cup debut in an 8–0 victory over Saudi Arabia. Germany reached the final but lost 2–0 to Brazil. He finished the tournament as the second-highest goal scorer with five goals, earning the Silver Boot.
In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Klose won the Golden Boot award for his 5 goals, the most in that tournament. Germany finished in third place after losing 2–0 to Italy in the semifinal and defeating Portugal 3–1 in the third-place playoff. He added 4 more goals at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in Germany’s run to the semifinals, where the team lost 1–0 to Spain, taking his World Cup overall tally to 14. Germany once again finished in third place after defeating Uruguay 3–2.
The highlight of Klose’s international playing career came at the 2014 World Cup, which was held in Brazil. Germany won its fourth World Cup title, and its first since 1990, with a 1–0 victory over Argentina in the final; it was Klose’s last international game. He scored twice in the tournament, first in a group stage match against Ghana and then in the 23rd minute in a 7–1 victory in the semifinals against host Brazil. He finished with 16 goals across tournaments, setting a record that would stand for more than a decade. Klose announced his retirement from international play after the tournament, finishing with 71 goals in 137 international appearances for Germany.
Postretirement
In 2016 Klose retired from professional football and joined the German men’s national team as an assistant coach, staying on for about two years. In 2018 he became the under-17 coach for Bayern Munich and was promoted to assistant manager for the senior team in 2020. On June 17, 2022, Klose signed as the new manager of SC Rheindorf Altach (also known as SCR Altach) in the Austrian Bundesliga. The team finished the 2022–23 season with a record of 5 wins, 7 draws, and 14 losses; Klose was relieved of his coaching duties at the end of the season. On June 11, 2024, Klose was appointed head coach of the Bundesliga second division team 1. FC Nürnberg.