Miroslav Klose

Miroslav Klose
Personal information
Height	1.82m (5 ft 11¾ in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Werder Bremen
	‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22 June2006

Miroslav Klose (born Mirosław Klose on June 9, 1978 in Opole, Poland) is a striker for the Germany national football team. He currently plays for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. His mother Barbara was a member of the Polish national handball team (82 international matches), his father Józef Klose was an Ethnic German and played football for Odra Opole and AJ Auxerre. The family moved first to France and then, in 1987, to Kusel in Germany.

Player Profile

Miroslav Klose learned his football at a village club, Blaubach-Diedelkopf, in the German seventh division. Eventually he joined FC Kaiserslautern in 1999, but only the amateur wing. He used to watch the pros from the stands.

A year after joining the club he made it into the first team and in his first 62 matches scored 25 times. The frequency of his goals earned him his first international cap and he made his debut against Albania on March 24, 2001. Germany won the match 2-1, with Klose scoring the winning goal.

In the

in Korea-Japan, he scored five goals for the German national team, finishing as one of the top scorers of the tournament. This tally included a hat trick in Germany's 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia.

The 2002-2003 season was a comparatively disappointing one as Klose found the back of the net a mere 7 times.

He transferred to Werder Bremen in 2004 for a sum of €5 million. After a sluggish start he formed an impressive partnership with Ivan Klasnić and scored 15 times in the Bundesliga.

Despite his relatively slender frame, Klose is one of the best headers in the Bundesliga. Moreover, he combines a natural killer instinct inside the box with excellent technical ability, and is equally lethal with the ball at his feet. By 2005, the introverted Klose had established himself as one of Germany's top strikers, if not the best. In the 2005/06 season he scored 25 goals and 16 assists in just 26 games in the Bundesliga.

Klose was named to his second successive FIFA World Cup team for the 2006 edition. In the FIFA World Cup 2006's opening match against Costa Rica, which was held on his 28th birthday, Klose scored two goals for Germany, in the 17th and 61st minutes. This led to Germany's 4-2 win over Costa Rica. His two goals against Ecuador on June 20 put him on top of the tournament top scorer list, and moved him into a tie for 12th all time with 9 goals.

Trivia

The Polish national coach wanted him for the Polish national team but he declined, preferring to wait for Germany.
Miro's trademark goal celebration is a front-flip which he did five times during the 2002 World Cup.
He was the most successful scorer of the Bundesliga season 2005/06 with 25 goals scored.
His five 2002 World Cup goals were all headers; none of the four goals he scored in the 2006 group stages have been. They have all been scored with his right foot.
"Miro" and his wife Sylwia had twins, named Luan and Noah on January 30th 2005.

Career stats

**All-Time Club Performance**
Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup		European Competition		Total
Club	Season	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Werder Bremen	05-06	26	25
Werder Bremen	04-05	32	15
Total		58	40
FC Kaiserslautern	03-04	26	10
	02-03	32	9
	01-02	31	16
	00-01	29	9
	99-00	2	0
Total		120	44
Career Totals		178	84

External links