World Cup 2014 - How Will History Remember Miroslav Klose?

Miroslav Klose has equalled Ronaldo’s record of 15 World Cup goals, and leads as Germany’s all-time highest goalscorer with 70 to his name. However, it’s not just Klose’s scoring ability that sets him apart.

March 24th, 2001. World Cup qualifier between Germany and Albania. With little over a quarter of an hour of to go and the score tied 1-1, Rudi VAi??ller brings on a lanky 22-year-old striker from FC Kaiserslautern. Fifteen minutes later, the Albanian goalkeeper dives to swat Marko Rehmer’s shot away from an incoming Carsten Jancker; the ball falls instead to the young substitute, who heads it home and celebrates the winner with an Olympic-caliber somersault.

Miroslav Klose has scored his first goal for Germany on his international debut.

Fast forward to June 21st, 2014. Down 1-2 to Ghana in the Fortaleza heat, Joachim LAi??w brings on the only center forward named in his 23-man World Cup squad. One minute and fifty-one seconds later, Toni Kroos whips in a corner kick, Benedikt HAi??wedes flicks it on from the near post, and Klose is there.

The somersaulting goal celebration no longer comes so easily to him. He is 36 years old, after all, has gained 133 international caps and notched a record 70 goals.

There are few things so certain in life as rain, tax, and Miroslav Klose scoring for Germany.

“It doesn’t matter if I play from the beginning or sit on the bench: all the players are important,” said Klose afterwards. But: “20 World Cup matches, 15 goals isn’t bad.”

Fifteen takes him to the top of the all-time World Cup goalscoring charts, right alongside Ronaldo himself. So no, not bad at all. Especially when you consider that, little over two years prior to his international debut, Klose was not even a professional footballer. He’d been a carpenter.

A late bloomer if ever there was one, Klose played in amateur leagues until the age of twenty. Once, in Edenkoben, he was sent home after the first day of training and told: “Youai??i??d be better off learning another job because youai??i??ll never have a career as a footballer.”

In 2000, he got his professional debut with FC Kaiserslautern. Nine months later, he was leading Germany’s front line at the 2002 World Cup, scoring a record five headers over the course of the tournament and somersaulting his way to international attention. Four years after that, in 2006, he won the Golden Boot. And in 2010, Klose became the only player ever to score at least four goals in three different World Cups.

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What is it about Miroslav Klose that sets him apart? He is not an imposing figure, despite being over six feet tall. His gait is not particularly refined, his on-the-ball movement never designed to set stadiums alight. His goals are rarely triumphs of individual genius, as one might see from Ronaldo or Messi. His interviews are not known for decadence of ego, as one might hear from Ibrahimovic or Balotelli.

In short, he is a modest man.

In 2012, on the cusp of breaking Gerd MA?ller’s record 68 goals for Germany, Klose was quick to refute comparisons between himself and Der Bomber. “You should not compare [Gerd MA?ller] with any other striker around,” said Klose. “What he has achieved is incomparable. I have told him that myself a few times. It is a joke to be compared to him.”

Never mind that Franz Beckenbauer had already been making the comparison back in 2002. In the same breath he’d likened Klose’s aerial ability to Uwe Seeler. And that same summer, Cesar Luis Menotti said of Klose: “There is more football in him than is believed by people who only associate him with his heading ability.”

He may not be a towering talent like other greats of the game, but Klose contributes more than simply the final touch. He is equally happy loitering in midfield as lurking in the opposition’s box. He always seems to know exactly where he needs to be to get the ball, and exactly how to contort his body to get it into the back of the net. His positional awareness and willingness to pass make him an excellent teammate, and this goes hand-in-glove with a personal conviction that places the team above the self. It’s a conviction that makes him willing to sit on the bench, at what is his last international tournament, just waiting until the coach should choose to send him in.

And that’s when he’ll put in the one all-important final touch.

After yesterday’s draw between Ghana and Germany, former captain-turned-commentator Michael Ballack pointed out — with something not unlike disgruntlement — that most of Klose’s goals have come from inside the six-yard box. It’s true enough: of those record 70 goals, many were tap-ins. Here is not a man known for thirty-yard screamers, nor for bending the ball around impossible situations, nor bending a team and a match to his will.

And it’s true that, in getting his monumental goal haul, Klose has been the beneficiary of fortune on at least two counts. For one, Germany have suffered a paucity of dependable strikers during the past decade; but at the same time, they have had a surplus of quality midfielders to supply the lone front man. Moreover, Klose has been fit enough to feature in seven international tournaments and, even at age 36, has not been usurped of his place in the national team.

All things considered, one can understand — if not excuse — Ballack’s slightly-unflattering analysis of his former teammate’s achievement. And Klose himself would probably be the first to agree that not all his goals can be considered feats of stunning ingenuity.

Everyone needs a bit of blind luck, every now and then. And football depends more on luck than most would like to admit. Because no, life’s not fair. Anyone can tell you that. It takes another caliber of person, however, to deal gracefully with fortune’s graceless whims: both the good and the ill.

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April 29th, 2005. Werder Bremen versus Arminia Bielefeld. Klose is brought down in the box by Arminia’s goalkeeper and awarded a penalty. Rather than walking to the spot, Klose talks the referee into rescinding the penalty, since the keeper had gotten the ball before upending him. The score at the time is 0-0. Klose goes on to score in the 78th minute; Werder Bremen win the match 3-0.

September 26th, 2012. Napoli versus Lazio. Klose jumps to meet an incoming cross, and the ball bounces off his flailing arm into the net. Napoli players call foul, but the referee has apparently noticed nothing amiss. Klose has a quiet chat with him, admits that it was handball, and the goal is disallowed. The score at the time is 0-0. Lazio go on to lose 0-3; Klose wins a Fair Play award for his honesty.

“It’s a big honor for me to receive this award,” Klose would say. “But I am also a bit irritated. For me, it was something you should always do. I would do it again — always.”

The cynic might sneer at this sentiment; that is the cynic’s loss. In a world of results-oriented football, the capacity to accept that defeat is as much part of fate’s decree as victory — is already too rare a thing. To have that capacity born of conviction, as someone within touching distance of glory, rather than resignation, as some relegation-bound minnow in the dying matchdays of a season — is almost unimaginable.

Yet there he stands, Miroslav Klose, in defiance of the impossible.

“He knows no fear,” said LAi??w of his striker. Klose is a role model for the rest of the German national team, the coach added, whether he starts or waits as a substitute. He is unfazed by the pressure and mania of big occasions. He is a dependable point of reference in the sometimes-messy evolution that is this current German side.

He won’t be, forever. But right now, at least, forever can be delayed for a little while yet.

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July 3rd, 2010. South Africa. Klose has retired his somersaulting goal celebration, it appeared. Two goals already in this World Cup, and not even a hint of acrobatics to be seen. The quarterfinal against Argentina marks his 100th international appearance. Germany dismantle Argentina 4-0. Klose scores one; he celebrates with a rockstar slide. Then he scores another — and pulls off the somersault like 2002 was only yesterday.

“The somersault,” Klose saysAi??later, chuckling. It’s been two years since South Africa, and two years yet to go before Brazil. “I think I can still do it, but I honestly do not want to risk it because I want to still be around in 2014.”

June 21st, 2014. Klose scores his 70th goal for Germany, and his 15th in World Cup finals. It is thirty-some degrees in Fortaleza, and he is 36 years old. He marks the occasion with a forward somersault. The landing is shaky, a 3/10 at best. But he’s done it. Of course he has. Was there ever really any doubt?

20 World Cup matches, 15 goals. In his own words: that isn’t bad.

And perhaps, in 50 years, he will not be remembered in the same breath as Gerd MA?ller or El FenA?meno. Perhaps not, but even so, the utter grace with which Miroslav Klose has come into his achievements is worthy of being remembered with every breath.

World Cup 2014 – How Will History Remember Miroslav Klose?

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