Miroslav Klose’s five best Germany moments

Germany’s record scorer and all-time leading World Cup marksman Miroslav Klose has called time on his international career, after Die Mannschaft won football’s most prestigious honour in Brazil.

Klose, 36, was a mainstay of German international football for 13 years, earning 137 caps, despite being born just across the border in Poland. His decision to retire from internationals follows that of Die Mannschaft captain and former Bayern Munich teammate Philipp Lahm.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements, Coral experts look back on Klose’s career, and how he served Rudi Voller, Jurgen Klinsmann and Joachim Low so well, by identifying his five finest moments as a German goal machine.

The perfect debut
Coming off the bench to net the winner against Albania in 2002 World Cup qualifier was how a then -22 years old Klose started his international career. He would go on to supplement this strike with 70 others in a Germany shirt.

World Cup hat-trick
Never mind the opposition, Klose first demonstrated he belonged on the biggest stage when he hit a hat-trick in the 8-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia at the 2002 World Cup. He would go on to net twice more at that tournament in Japan and South Korea. Klose was far from done scoring at this level, though.

Crushing Three Lions
Klose got the ball running in the 4-1 last 16 drubbing Germany gave bitter rivals England at the 2010 World Cup. As a youngster, he had come off the bench when the Three Lions won 5-1 in the Olympic Stadium, the previous competitive meeting. Revenge was sweet.

Going one better than Gerd
Yet again, the team in his path may not have been stellar, but Klose converted a record-breaking goal for Germany in a 2014 World Cup warm-up friendly against Armenia. It was his 69th in international colours, eclipsing the great Gerd Muller’s Die Mannschaft record of 68.

Greatest ever World Cup scorer
Not content with Muller’s record, Klose then levelled the mark of 15 set by Brazil legend Ronaldo at World Cup finals by equalising against Ghana in the 2014 group stage. He then followed that up by becoming the outright top scorer on the global stage by grabbing the second in Germany’s 7-1 semi-final demolition of tournament hosts Brazil.