Miroslav Klose

International career

In January 2001, the then national coach Jerzy Engel of the Poland national football team travelled to Germany to persuade Klose to play for the Polish national team, since Klose has Polish nationality. His request was declined by Klose who said that: "I have a German passport, and if things are still running this way, I have a chance to play for Rudi V�ller".

His consistency as a goal-scorer in his first season at Kaiserslautern 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 Germany's second goal.

In the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea-Japan, he scored five goals for the German national team, finishing as one of the highest scorers of the tournament. This tally included a hat trick in Germany's 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia. Klose's trademark goal celebration is a front-flip which he did five times during the 2002 FIFA World Cup and which has earned him the fans' nickname "Salto-Klose".

Klose was named to his second successive World Cup team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In the opening match against Costa Rica, coinciding with 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. He scored another two goals against EcuadorJune 20, putting him on top of the tournament top scorer list with four goals. Klose also played a major part in Germany's 2-0 win over Sweden in the first knockout round, demonstrating his ability to provide assists as he set up strike partner Lukas Podolski on for both goals.

Klose scored the equaliser against Argentina in the quarterfinal game played on June 30, 2006, with Germany going on to win 4-2 on penalties. Klose is the first German since Gerd M�ller in the 1970s to become the top scorer at a World Cup, and the first World Cup finals top scorer from unified Germany (M�ller represented the former West Germany). Klose has scored 10 goals in World Cup finals, and is 6 goals away from overtaking Brazilian forward Ronaldo as the all-time highest scorer in World Cup finals

His five 2002 World Cup goals were all headers; only the fifth of his five goals in the 2006 matches was a header (his first in two years). Three of the first four were scored with his favoured right foot. Klose and team-mate Michael Ballack became the only two All-Star Team Players of the 2006 World Cup to be in the previous All-Star Team of 2002.

On 6 September 2006 Klose scored 2 away goals against San Marino in a 13-0 win for Germany which took his international goal tally to 33, the same amount as his idol Fritz Walter and to joint 7th in the list of all-time goalscorers for Germany.

Honours

• World Cup: Runner-up 2002, Third 2006
• Bundesliga: Runner-up 2006
• DFB Liga-Pokal: Runner-up 2004, Champion 2006
• World Cup Golden Boot: 2006, Silver Shoe 2002
• German Footballer of the Year: 2006
• German top scorer: 2005