Klose is considered to be one of the best centre forwards of all time and he currently still holds the record of number of goals scored in the World Cup (16).
Born in Opole, Poland, on June 9 1978, his family moved to Germany in 1986. He began his career in Homburg but in 1999 he was noticed by Kaiserslautern and began playing for the B team. He did so well (20 goals) that he quickly moved up to the A team and started playing his first games in the Bundesliga.
In four seasons with Kaiserslautern, he scored consistently, always getting into double figures and also started playing for Germany. He kept on scoring for his next club Werder Bremen, where he stayed until 2007. He was top scorer in Bundesliga in 2005-06 and top scorer in the 2006 World Cup.
In 2007 he started playing for Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga in his first year. He won it again in his third year in Bavaria but did not play so much due to injury and also because manager Van Gaal preferred Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller. His final year in Bayern was pretty dismal personally as he played very rarely. His contract expired and he started looking for a new team. Lazio knocked on his door and he moved to Rome.
He played five seasons for Lazio. Lots of ups and a few downs. No discussion on how good he was, but at times he gave fans the feeling that the German national team and the World Cup had priority. He consistently missed at least a couple of months a year due to injury, often in the worst possible moments. But when he was on the pitch, he did what he was famous for: scoring goals. His passion for fishing (he was often spotted in nearby Lake Bracciano) gave him the nickname “Goal Fisher”.
He played 171 games for Lazio with 63 goals (139 in Serie A with 54 goals, 11 in Coppa Italia and 3 goals, 18 games in Europa League with 6 goals, one match in Champions League and 2 in the Italian Supercoppa). He is the foreign player with most goals in Serie A for the Biancocelesti.
There are three moments to remember in Klose’s history with Lazio. His winning goal in the last minute of the 2011 derby, five goals in a single game against Bologna in May 2013, and the win over Roma in the Coppa Italia final of 2013 which was his only trophy with Lazio.
Klose is of course an icon of his national team. He played 137 times for his country and scored 71 goals. He was part of the German squad in the 2002 World Cup (5 goals, Germany were runners-up), Euro 2004, 2006 World Cup (5 goals, Germany were third), Euro 2008 (two goals, runners-up), 2010 World Cup (4 goals, 3rd place), Euro 2012 (lost in semi-final, one goal), and in the victorious 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he scored one goal.
In total he has won the Bundesliga twice with Bayern Munich, 2 German League Cups (Werder Bremen and Bayern), a German Super Cup with Bayern and a Coppa Italia. He won the World Cup in 2014. He is the World Cup’s all-time record goal scorer; Germany national team all-time record goal scorer, only player with four consecutive FIFA World Cup podium finishes: runner-up in 2002, third place in 2006, third place in 2010, winner in 2014; only men's player to appear in four consecutive FIFA World Cup semi-finals: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014; one of three players to score at least five goals in multiple World Cups; most goals from headers in a single edition of the men's FIFA World Cup; one of eight players in Serie A history to score five goals in one match.
So all in all not a bad career!!!
After having trained the under 17s in Bayern Munich from 2018 to 2020, he was assistant to Bayern manager Hans-Dieter Flick in 2020-21. In 2022-23 he was manager of Altach in Austria. He is now currently manager of Nürenburg in 2. Fußball-Bundesliga (German second tier).
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa Leage | Super Coppa |
2011-12 | 35 (15) | 27 (12) | 2 | - | 6 (3) | - |
2012-13 | 36 (16) | 29 (15) | 2 | - | 5 (1) | - |
2013-14 | 29 (8) | 25 (7) | - | - | 3 (1) | 1 |
2014-15 | 40 (16) | 34 (13) | 6 (3) | - | - | - |
2015-16 | 31 (8) | 24 (7) | 1 | 1 | 4 (1) | 1 |
Total | 171 (63) | 139 (54) | 11 (3) | 1 | 18 (6) | 2 |
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