The story of Miroslav Klose: World Cup top scorer – 2014-2026

The World Cup record set by Miroslav Klose may be in its final days. Lionel Messi has already scored 16 goals in the history of the tournament, and Kylian Mbappe has 14. This means that one interesting detail may disappear. Who is the top scorer at the World Cup? This is not Pele or even Ronaldo, the great Brazilian. No, this is Miroslav Klose. After his hat-trick against Algeria in the first round, Messi moved level with Klose, but the German's 16 goals have come in fewer matches (24 to 27), keeping him at the top of the charts for now. That will likely change today. Messi's Argentina face Austria and Mbappe, who looks in fine form, could line up against Iraq. But while Klose's record will go, his story will remain - and it's a good story. He was born in Poland and came from a sports family. His mother played 82 matches as a goalkeeper for the national handball team, and his father, a professional footballer, played in the Polish first league for more than ten years and even appeared in the French Cup final in 1979 for Auxerre. If it sounds like his success was inevitable, that's misleading; the player who would one day become the top scorer in the World Cup almost never became a professional player. That he grew up in Germany at all is a story worthy of a John le Carré novel. In 1987, communism began to collapse in Eastern Europe. Josef Klose, Miroslav's father, worked as a reserve team coach in Opole, the club he played for in Poland. Society began to disintegrate. Goods became increasingly scarce and expensive. That summer, Josef informed his employers that he needed ear surgery in West Germany and that he would be out for two weeks while he recovered. In fact, he never intended to return. He told his children, Miroslav and his sister, not to tell their school friends. After the family loaded up the car and withdrew their savings from the local bank, they crossed the border into Germany to one of the reception centers used to process people leaving the old East. Author Ronald Reng wrote a biography of Klose called Miro, which has never been translated into English, but is almost worth learning German to read the story. Josef Klose wanted a better future for his children. Presumably he could never have imagined that his decision to leave Poland and leave his two-room apartment would change the course of German football history.