Luca Toni, Italy
After top-scoring in the Bundesliga with FC Bayern München and hitting ten more to end up as the 2007/08 UEFA Cup’s most prolific striker along with Pavel Pogrebnyak of FC Zenit St. Petersburg, Azzurri fans will be expecting Toni’s goal spree to continue here. Toni must produce if the FIFA World Cup holders are to get out of a demanding Group C.

Jan Koller, Czech Republic
Baroš will hope to hold on to his award but his compatriot Koller could succeed him having been scoring at international level for over nine years. The big man’s record of 54 goals in 87 appearances for his country is phenomenal, as is his consistency: he scored six goals in UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying – just as he did in 2000 and 2004.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Ronaldo may play on the wing for Portugal but he is still their greatest goal threat and comes into the tournament in the form of his life. The 23-year-old struck 42 goals this season, top-scoring in the UEFA Champions League and English Premier League for Manchester United FC and after finding the target in Moscow against Chelsea FC is desperate to make his mark on another big occasion.

Miroslav Klose, Germany
Germany have been tipped to go far at UEFA EURO 2008™ and that should give the FC Bayern München striker ample chance to add to the 39 goals he has already scored for his country at a rate of over one every two games. Klose is the only player in history to score five or more goals in successive FIFA World Cups, but is yet to score at a UEFA European Championship.

Thierry Henry, France
Fresh from playing his 100th game for Les Bleus, Henry will be keen to put a difficult first season with FC Barcelona behind him. His partnership with rising star Karim Benzema has set French pulses racing and though the youngster has been hogging the headlines of late, France’s record scorer shows no sign of giving up centre stage just yet.

Euzebiusz Smolarek, Poland
Smolarek’s nine goals in qualifying is more than any other player at these finals with David Healy’s Northern Ireland having missed out and Eduardo da Silva suffering injury. That has taken his overall international tally from four to 13, and it seems likely that the Real Racing Club Santander striker, who drew a blank at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, will be able to emulate his father Włodzimierz in scoring at a major finals.

Ruud van Nistelrooy, Netherlands
Having patched up his differences with coach Marco van Basten, Van Nistelrooy will be eager to make the most of this opportunity. Injury kept him out of the side for much of Real Madrid CF’s run-in but he is coming into form. He scored in four consecutive games for club and country up to his strike in the 1-1 draw with Denmark on 29 May, which took him up to 31 Netherlands goals - nine short of all-time leader Patrick Kluivert.

Fernando Torres, Spain
After Torres’s formidable first season with Liverpool FC, Spain fans have every reason to look ahead to UEFA EURO 2008™ with confidence. The question is, can their midfield provide the ammunition in such devastating style as Steven Gerrard does at Anfield?

Nihat Kahveci, Turkey
After more than one season of injury frustration, the Turkey forward struck 23 Villarreal CF goals in 2007/08 and also contributed vital strikes in qualifying for his nation. Good enough for Fatih Terim to leave out folk hero Hakan Şükür.

Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden)
“He’s probably one of the best forwards today,” says Sweden coach Lars Lagerbäck of Ibrahimović. The return of Henrik Larsson will ease some of the goalscoring burden on the 26-year-old FC Internazionale Milano striker who scored 17 times for FC Internazionale Milano last season.

Miroslav Klose (born Mirosław Marian Kloze on June 9, 1978 in Opole, Silesia, Poland) is a German footballer who plays as a striker. He currently plays for FC Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga in Germany, and for the German National Football Team. He is known for his goalscoring instincts, aerial ability, and unselfish play.

Klose was the top scorer and thus the Golden Boot winner at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, with a tournament-high five goals. Klose also scored five goals in his debut World Cup, the 2002 World Cup hosted jointly by the Korea Republic and Japan, giving him a total of ten goals in World Cup finals. He is the first player representing unified Germany to finish as the World Cup’s top scorer, and the only player to have scored five or more goals in consecutive World Cups.

Biography

Klose was born in Opole, Silesia, Poland, and hails from a sporting family; his mother, Barbara Jeż, was a member of the Poland national handball team (appearing in 82 international matches), and his father, Józef Kloze, played professional football in Poland and France, and he also represented the Poland National Football Team on several occasions. In 1981, the Klose family escaped Soviet controlled communist Poland, by moving first to France, then in 1987, to Kusel, Germany. Klose’s father is from an ethnic German family and thus could resettle as an Aussiedler.

Klose learned his football at a village club, Blaubach-Diedelkopf, in the German seventh division. Klose had also successfully completed an apprenticeship to become a carpenter and had worked in this profession until joining the professional team of Kaiserslautern.

Klose made it professional much later than football players in the age bracket. He has in the past had many comparisons with various world class strikers such as Owen and Van Nistelrooy. When asked about the comparisons Klose expressed his flattery to be compared to the likes of Van Nistelrooy, “It’s an honour to be compared to Ruud, he’s played in Europe for so long and has a great goal scoring record, I hope one day I can be good as him.” This interview was conducted in June 2007 with Der Spiegel prior his move to Bayern Munich.

Club career

Kaiserslautern

After a season at FC Homburg, he eventually joined the amateur division of FC Kaiserslautern.

A year after joining the club he made it into the first team. In his first 67 matches, Klose scored 33 goals. The 2002–2003 season was a comparatively disappointing one as Klose found the back of the net a mere seven times.

Werder Bremen

Klose transferred to Werder Bremen in 2004 for a sum of €5 million. After a lackluster start, Klose formed an impressive attacking triangle with French midfielder Johan Micoud and Croatian forward Ivan Klasnić as well as, though less frequently, Paraguayan forward Nelson Valdez, scoring 15 goals in the Bundesliga.

Despite his relatively slender frame, Klose is one of the best headers of the ball in the Bundesliga. Moreover, he combines a natural killer instinct inside the box with excellent technical ability, and is equally lethal with the ball at his feet. By 2005, the introverted Klose had established himself as one of Germany’s top forwards, if not the best. In the 2005–06 season, he scored 25 goals, the highest that season, and registered 16 assists in just 26 games in the Bundesliga.

After his strong performance at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Klose was linked by newspapers with a move away from the Weserstadion. European giants Barcelona and Juventus were listed among his potential suitors. Klose was also heavily linked with a move to Bayern Munich, with Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer an admirer of Klose.

On June 7, 2007, Klose confirmed that he would leave Werder Bremen for Bayern Munich either before the 2007–08 season or upon the expiration of his contract with Werder Bremen at the end of the 2007–08 season.

Bayern Munich

On June 26, 2007, club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed that Bayern Munich had reached an agreement with Werder Bremen regarding the transfer of Klose for an estimated fee of €15m. Klose completed his medical with Bayern on June 28, 2007 before signing a four-year contract.

After these successful friendly matches, Klose made his first competitive appearance for Bayern in a 4–1 victory against old team Werder Bremen in the first round of the DFB Liga-Pokal. After missing the semi-final victory over VfB Stuttgart due to injury, Klose returned in the final against Schalke 04, scoring his first competitive goal for Bayern to win the title.

Klose made his Bundesliga debut in the game against Hansa Rostock on August 11, 2007 in which he scored two goals. The game ended 3–0 for Bayern Munich with Klose’s striking partner Luca Toni scoring the third goal. In late September, he claimed his first hat-trick for the club in a 5-0 League success over Energie Cottbus.

Klose’s career with Bayern so far has had a very good start, with him scoring important goals in the Bundesliga and DFB Cup, helping the club win the double in these competitions.

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 Völler”.

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 Ecuador on June 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 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 Müller in the 1970s to become the top scorer at a World Cup, and the first World Cup finals top scorer from unified Germany (Müller represented the former West Germany). Klose has scored ten goals in World Cup finals, and is six goals away from overtaking Brazilian forward Ronaldo as the all-time highest scorer in World Cup finals.

Klose’s 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 two 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.

He had a goal drought for a long time with the national team, causing speculation that he may be dropped from the starting line-up. But German coach Joachim Low has denied this.

Another highlight in Klose’s career came on September 8, 2007, as he captained Germany for the first time and celebrated this honour by scoring both of his country’s goals in a 2–0 victory over Wales. The next day, one of the headlines in the UEFA official website was “Captain Klose Takes Germany Closer (to qualifying).”

Honours

Club Titles

• DFB Liga-Pokal: 2006 SV Werder Bremen,2007 FC Bayern Munich
• Bundesliga: Champion 2008 FC Bayern Munich
• German Cup: 2008 FC Bayern Munich

National Team

• World Cup: Runner-up 2002
• World Cup: Third 2006

Personal Honours

• Bundesliga Top Goalscorer: 2006
• World Cup Golden Shoe: 2006
• World Cup Silver Shoe: 2002
• German Footballer of the Year: 2006

Germany 2-2 Belarus
Joachim Löw’s side let a two-goal lead slip in their penultimate friendly before UEFA EURO 2008™ in Kaiserslautern.

Belarus comeback
Two early German goals had suggested a resounding win was on the cards but poor defending allowed the visitors to earn a draw. Miroslav Klose and an own goal had put the home side in command inside 20 minutes but in the final third of the match there was an unexpected twist when Vitali Bulyga scored twice to give Löw some food for thought.

Defensive absentees
Germany were without a number of defenders including Heiko Westermann, who had joined his wife for the birth of their child, so Thomas Hitzlsperger was used as a makeshift left-back. Two holding midfielders were deployed in Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings, while Löw used the same attacking duo in Klose and Lukas Podolski that shone during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Early strikes
And it was that pair that combined for the first German goal after ten minutes when Podolski burst inside from the right wing and his through ball found Klose in the area who made no mistake after rounding Vasili Khomutovski. However, the German defence were not looking solid and Maksim Romaschenko fired over from close range in response. With twenty minutes played, David Odonkor surged down the right wing and crossed beyond all his team-mates but Vladimir Korytko could only find his own net as he attempted to clear.

Bulyga double
Belarus were a different proposition after the interval and they registered a deserved goal on 61 minutes when Bulyga beat Jens Lehmann from 16 metres after a fine pass by Aleksandr Kulchiy. Germany tried to up the ante again thereafter but failed to convince and the underdogs, under the influence of their German coach Bernd Stange, celebrated Bulyga’s second goal after an unchallenged solo effort with two minutes remaining.

Germany: Lehmann, Lahm, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Hitzlsperger, Frings (Trochowski 67), Ballack (Jones 46), Odonkor (Fritz 79), Schweinsteiger (Marin 46), Klose (Helmes 54), Podolski (Neuville 54).

Belarus: Khomutovski, Omelyanchuk, Lentsevich, Filipenko, Korytko, Kulchiy, A. Hleb, Romaschenko (Sitko 46), Putilo (Pavlov 73), V. Hleb (Rodionov 54), Bulyga.