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Klose return adds to Bayern's old boys club

Matt Pearson
April 18, 2018

Niko Kovac won't be the only former Bayern Munich player returning to the club in the off season. According to reports in Germany, Miroslav Klose will leave Germany's national team set up to coach Bayern's under 17s.

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Miroslav Klose
Image: Imago/photoarena/Eisenhuth

Klose, the all-time top scorer at World Cup finals with 16 goals, retired from playing in 2016 and joined Joachim Löw's coaching staff with the national team almost immediately after.

According to several sources in Germany, the 39-year-old will now take on Bayern under-17s after the World Cup. Bayern's sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic is confident the deal is done. "We are in good talks. We will get it done. Miro is a great lad, everyone knows that. He is a global star,"  he said on Tuesday.

Read more: Niko Kovac gets shot at the big time with Bayern Munich gig

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Klose played for Bayern between 2007 and 2011, winning two Bundesliga titles and two German cups and will see plenty of familiar faces upon his arrival at the club. As well as Salihamidzic, who made 234 Bundesliga appearances for the champions, Frenchman Willy Sagnol is another ex-player associated with the club, while Philipp Lahm performs ambassadorial duties for the club.

Higher up, in the boardroom, Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge add to the old boys network while Franz Beckenbauer is the club's honorary president. 

Mehmet Scholl, another former Bayern man who last worked as a TV pundit, is expected to follow Klose to Säbener Strasse and work as a reserve team coach under Kovac.

While Klose's role with the German national team is largely focused on attack coaching, his current coaching licence only allows him to train teams below the third division as well as all women's and junior sides.