Miroslav Josef Klose born Mirosław Marian Kloze born on 9 June 1978 in Opole, Poland is a German footballer who plays as a striker for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Since bursting onto the international stage with five goals at the 2002 World Cup, he has become well-known for his knack of scoring headers, front-flip goal celebrations, and decisive short passing. He was a mainstay in Bayern's starting 11 before injuries took him out of the team for a while; during his convalescence, Croatian Ivica Olić filled in and replaced Klose as Louis van Gaal's first-choice striker.
Klose holds German nationality and has played 106 times and scored 59 goals for Germany. With five goals, he was the top scorer and Golden Boot winner at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Klose also scored five goals in his debut World Cup, the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, all of which were headers. He scored in his first game of the 2010 World Cup, opening the scoring against England in the first round of the knockout stages, and scored twice on his 100th cap against Argentina in the quarter-finals, giving him a total of 14 World Cup goals and putting him joint second along with Gerd Müller on the list of FIFA World Cup goalscorers, but one behind all-time top scorer Ronaldo of Brazil. He is among the group of professional football players who have scored more than 50 international goals.
Klose is the first German player since reunification to finish as the World Cup's top scorer. He is also the only player to have scored five or more goals in consecutive World Cups, as well as the only player to have scored at least four in three different tournaments; he scored five at the 2002 and 2006 tournaments and four at the 2010 finals.
Klose was born in the Silesian city of Opole, Poland. Both of his parents were active in sports. His mother, Barbara Jeż, was a member of the Poland women's national handball team. His father, Josef Klose, played professional football in Poland for Odra Opole, before leaving then-communist Poland in 1978 and moving to France to play for AJ Auxerre. In 1985, Klose and his mother joined his father in Kusel, a small town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Klose's father is an ethnic German and holds German nationality.
Klose himself said in a recent interview to Przegląd Sportowy that it would be best for him not to be called German or Polish, but European. As he stated in an interview to Der Spiegel in 2007, his family at home speaks Polish to each other, with his twin sons Luan and Noah learning German in Kindergarten.He has a Polish-born wife, Sylwia Klose.
Klose learned his football at a village club, SG Blaubach-Diedelkopf, in the German seventh division. Klose had also successfully completed an apprenticeship to become a carpenter and had worked in this profession until joining the professional team of FC Kaiserslautern.
Full name: Miroslav Josef Klose
Date of birth: 9 June 1978
Place of birth: Opole, Poland
Height: 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position: Striker
Club information
Current club: Bayern Munich
Number: 18
Youth career
1987–1998 SG Blaubach-Diedelkopf
Senior career
1998–1999 FC Homburg 20 (11)
1999–2001 1. FC Kaiserslautern II 50 (26)
1999–2004 1. FC Kaiserslautern 120 (44)
2004–2007 Werder Bremen 89 (53)
2007– Bayern Munich 91 (24)
National team
2001– Germany 106 (59)
