Klose, a man for the big occasion
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The passing years have not weighed heavy on German goal machine Miroslav Klose, who will contest the 14th final of his storied career for Lazio against Juventus in the Coppa Italia this coming Wednesday, just 20 days short of his 37th birthday.
Despite having announced his international retirement following Germany’s triumph at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, Klose is still going strong. Fifteen seasons on from making his professional debut, the man they call Air Klose is still enjoying the game every bit as much as he always has.
FIFA.com looks back at some of the highlights of the veteran German striker’s career, one in which he has met with plenty of success and the occasional disappointment.
30 June 2002: Klose is on the losing side in his first FIFA World Cup Final as Germany go down 2-0 to Brazil. Aged only 24 at the time, he nevertheless enjoys a productive tournament, scoring a hat-trick in his side’s 8-0 defeat of Saudi Arabia and five goals in total, all of them headers, to finish the tournament as second-highest scorer behind Brazil’s Ronaldo. Many more goals would follow during his Nationalmannschaft career.
31 May 2003: Klose scores his first goal in a final, for Kaiserslautern against Bayern Munich in the German Cup final. That strike, which came ten minutes from the end of time, could not prevent Bayern from securing their fourth Bundesliga/Cup double with a 3-1 win.
5 August 2006: Beaten in the first three finals of his career, Klose wins a trophy at the fourth attempt as Werder Bremen see off Bayern 2-0 to land the German League Cup. Appearing at his second World Cup that same year, the front man scores braces against Costa Rica and Ecuador and an equaliser in the quarter-final against Argentina, having also served up an assist in the Round-of-16 win over Sweden. His tally of five goals in seven games wins him the adidas Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer.
29 June 2008: The Polish-born forward scores twice as Germany advance to the final at UEFA EURO 2008, where they lose 1-0 to Spain. Another major final defeat would follow nearly two years later, on 22 May 2010, as Bayern Munich went down to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Madrid.
27 June 2010: Revelling in the World Cup atmosphere once more, Miro provides further proof of his big-match temperament, setting Germany on the way to a crushing 4-1 defeat of England in the Round of 16. Latching on to a long clearance by Manuel Neuer, Klose shrugs off the attentions of Matthew Upson and slides the ball home for his 12th world finals goal, putting him level with Pele. A few days later he joins compatriot Gerd Muller on 14 goals, scoring twice as Germany sweep to a 4-0 defeat of Argentina.
26 May 2013: Before a packed Estadio Olimpico, Klose helps Lazio to a 1-0 win over city rivals Roma in the Coppa Italia. Three weeks earlier he struck five in a 6-0 defeat of Bologna, a reminder to his detractors that his finishing skills remain very much intact.
8 July 2014: At the age of 36 years and 29 days, Klose cements his status as a World Cup legend by becoming the competition’s all-time highest goalscorer with 16 goals in 23 matches spread over four tournaments: five goals at Korea/Japan 2002, five at Germany 2006, four at South Africa 2010 and two at Brazil 2014. As fate would have it, he overhauls Ronaldo’s record of 15 in his side’s emphatic semi-final defeat of Brazil, becoming in the process the first player to appear in four World Cup semi-finals and the only player along with fellow countryman Uwe Seeler to have scored at least twice at four different World Cups.
13 July 2014: Klose starts as Germany beat Argentina 1-0 to win the World Cup for the fourth time. He announces his international retirement shortly afterwards, having scored 71 goals in 137 appearances for his country.
20 May 2015: The 36-year-old sharpshooter will contest final number 14 of his career in the Coppa Italia against Juventus in Rome.