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One of the most underappreciated footballers of our times has to be Miroslav Klose. The all time top scorer in World Cup history has been ever present for Germany and is currently their all time top scorer – breaking a record that was previously held by the iconic Gerd Muller. Besides that Klose is extremely humble and integrates vast amounts of fair play into his game which many other footballers lack but is still overlooked in favour of his other peers just because he isn’t as prolific as them.
It’s true Klose’s style of play is old school and doesn’t boast of any extraordinary skills (barring his trademark summersault celebration) but he always keeps his head on his shoulders and is always at the right place at the right time which is why he has found the back of the net on 16 occasions in the World Cup.
Whenever I think of Klose a certain verse of rock band Queen’s iconic song ‘Radio GaGa’ comes to mind which goes:
“You had your time, you had the power, You've yet to have your finest hour”
While this song is about the under appreciation of the Radio the same thing can be said about Klose who has been given his fair dues. So keeping that in mind I urge you to go through these Miroslav Klose facts and educate yourself about this man whose refreshing presence will be sorely missed by Die Mannschaft.
Miroslav Klose was born on 9 June 1978 in Opole, Poland (Yes the man who is Germany’s all time top scorer isn’t even German!) to Josef a footballer who played for teams like Ligue 1 side AJ Auxerre and Barbara, a member of the Poland women’s national football team. Klose and his family moved to Germany when he was 8 where they permanently settled down. Even though Klose is Polish he holds Germany very close to his heart and never refers to himself as Polish or German, preferring to call himself European.
The striker developed a passion for football while playing for local club SG Blaubach-Diedlkopf, a club in the German seventh division where he remained until the age of 20.
Klose briefly played for then Bundesliga side FC Homburg before moving to FC Kaiserslautern in 1999 and narrowly missed out on being the Bundesliga’s top scorer for the 2001-2002 season by two goals. While at Kaiserslautern Klose received a call up to the German national team in 2001, beginning his 71 goal journey which included him participating in four World Cups and scoring five goals in two of the tournaments editions.
His consistency with Kaiserslautern earned him a transfer to Werder Bremen where he scored 60 goals in 128 appearances which helped him team lift the DFB Ligapokai in 2006 and was the Bundesliga’s top scorer that same year with 31 goals which also won him the German Footballer of the Year award.
Klose’s exploits with Bremen attracted the attention of Germany’s premier club Bayern Munich who signed the striker on a four year contract in 2007. The German formed a superb partnership with Italian striker Luca Toni and the pair fired Munich to 2 Bundesliga titles, 1 DFB Pokai, 1 DFB Supercup along with the DFB Ligapokai trophy before Klose left Munich for Serie A side Lazio in 2011 on expiration of his contract.
Klose took no time in becoming an integral part of Lazio and fired the team to the Coppa Italia in his second season with the club. Besides having a knack for scoring important goals for Lazio, Klose also endeared himself to the clubs fans by scoring the winning goal against heated rivals Roma. In fact Klose’s local postman was so amazed with the striker that he bent down and kissed his feet in a gesture that touched Klose who said “Before I came here, I had never seen a postman kneel on my doorstep and kiss my feet. It’s happened to me here”.
Another thing that has won him fans all over the world is his fairplay. During his time at Bremen, Klose refused to accept a penalty which was unjustly given against the opposing team in an act that won him the Fair Play award. The second time Klose displayed honesty on the field was while playing for Lazio in the match against Napoli against whom he scored with his hand. The striker admitted his actions to the referee who took back the goal and shook Klose’s hand instead of booking him.
Before taking up football as a full time profession Klose practiced carpentry until the age of 20 (Maybe that’s why he hits the woodwork all the time) and still practices the art in his spare time. The striker loves dogs and owns a Doberman and also enjoys listening to hip-hop and rap music when he isn’t on the field. Religion is something that Klose, who is Roman Catholic, holds close to his heart and even met Pope Benedict XVI on a visit to the Vatican in 2012.
Klose is married to his childhood sweetheart Sylwia who gave birth to twins Luari and Noah on January 30th 2005. The entire family were on the pitch celebrating with Klose when he and his teammates lifted the World Cup this July.
Some of the records that Klose holds in the World Cup besides his 16 goals are appearing in four semi-finals of the tournament, one in three players the others being Pele and Uwe Seeler to score goals in four editions of the World Cup and scoring 7 World Cup goals with his head.
The 6 foot striker is sponsored by American sportswear company Nike who supply Klose with their Hypervenom version of their football boots.
Perhaps it was right that Germany ended up as World Champions this year as it was a fitting parting gift to the man who will undoubtedly be recognized as one of the game’s greats when he hangs up his boots. That’s Miroslav Klose for you ladies and gentlemen.
