He has never used strong words to promote himself. Miroslav Klose was always one of the quieter football professionals, but he was there when he was needed. The centre-forward, who was rather shy at the start of his brilliant career at the turn of the millennium at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, intimidated his opponents on the pitch, and his instinct for open spaces and suitable opportunities meant he was able to evade them again and again, scoring goal after goal with his head and feet, something he never said much about at his other Bundesliga stations at Werder Bremen and FC Bayern Munich.
He, the 2014 World Cup winner who let his actions speak for themselves, almost in passing became the World Cup record goalscorer with 16 goals in the four World Cup tournaments between 2002 and 2014, a figure that no Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi could surpass. Klose, German champion with Bayern in 2008 and 2010, is without a doubt an icon of German football.
Hardworking and meticulous
Now the retired striker is ready to take over a head coaching position for the first time at another traditional German club: 1. FC Nuremberg, which ended up in the grey area of the table in twelfth place last season. It is impossible to predict whether this adventure will also end well for the ambitious Klose.
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The successor to Christian Fiél, who has moved to rivals Hertha BSC, will not be lacking in the necessary hard work and meticulousness. In addition to his undisputed high level of expertise, Klose’s aura as a football coach will also be crucial to his future professional success. Joti Chatzialexou, the new Nuremberg sports director, is convinced that he has made the right choice.
Chatzialexious Botschaft
The former sporting director of the national teams at the German Football Association knows Klose well from his time at the association, where the attacker took his first steps towards a new career as assistant coach of the senior national team on familiar terrain in 2016. Klose has only been head coach once before, in the 2022/23 season at the Austrian Bundesliga club SCR Altach, where he was sacked in March 2023 due to lack of success.
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An episode whose outcome did not affect Chatzialexiou when he revived contact with Klose in his new position. The 46-year-old coach, said Chatzialexiou at the presentation of the new “Club” coach on Tuesday, has “developed a clear idea of how to be successful in football and what it takes to do so on the pitch and in the dressing room.”
While Chatzialexiou sent the message to the competition that “we have a lot planned”, Klose, who wants to go to work “full of drive and enthusiasm”, remained true to himself. He thinks that talking about immediate promotion to the Bundesliga is “presumptuous, we shouldn’t set our sights too high”. Good things take time.
