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Miroslav Klose has secured his first senior job as a head coach after taking over as boss of Austrian Bundesliga team SCR Altach.
The appointment of the Germany great, whose career haul of 16 World Cup goals remains a competition record, was announced on Friday.
The news was portrayed as a surprise appointment in Austria. Altach said Klose will sign his contract on Sunday and be presented on Monday.
Klose, the 44-year-old former striker, retired from playing in 2016 after five years with Serie A side Lazio and has since had spells working as an assistant with the Germany national team, and at Bayern Munich.
He was head coach of the Bayern under-17 team for two seasons and served as first-team assistant to Hansi Flick in the 2020-21 campaign.
Altach said in a statement that Klose’s former Bayern coaching colleague Slaven Skeledzic would become an assistant coach, once his release from the German champions, where he remains employed, can be secured.
Klose said of his challenge: “I’m really looking forward to my new job here in Altach. It was just that positive feeling right from the start that I have to have, that I’m in the right place here.
“The first discussions with those in charge were so open that it was clear to me that I want to do this. Now I can hardly wait to get to know the team, the people in the club and of course the fans.”
Klose won two Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal doubles during four years as a player with Bayern, from 2007 to 2011.
He won 137 caps and scored a record 71 goals in a distinguished Germany career, in which he reached the finals of the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2008, before helping Die Mannschaft win the World Cup in 2014.
The winner of the Golden Shoe at the 2006 tournament on home soil also played elite club football with Kaiserslautern and Werder Bremen.
Altach managing director Christoph Langle offered assurance that the club were not merely attracted by Klose’s high profile.
Langle said: “Miro Klose is a very big name in football. But it’s not about the name for us, it’s about Miro Klose’s personality, his skills as a coach and what is very important to us at SCR Altach: the people.
“Known as a hard, down-to-earth worker, Miroslav has risen to world class. The values he stands for are a perfect match for our club and his football skills are undisputed anyway.”
