Miroslav Klose
There are plenty of footballers who have made the somersault their trademark celebration. Miroslav Klose must be the only one who managed to somersault with humility.
The 38-year-old German striker has announced the end of his active playing career. He did so to thunderous applause. His countrymen love him.
They love him for his goals, for his contributions to a fine era for German football. But perhaps most of all, they love him for his humility.
This is a man who is the all-time World Cup record goalscorer. He has won the World Cup, two Bundesliga titles and an Italian Cup.
He has scored more international goals than anyone in the 21st century, and is the only man other than Pele to have scored in four World Cups.
Yet he has always retained a dignified calm, both on the pitch and off it. As NDR described him today, he was and is ‘the quiet superstar’.
When Klose broke Gerd Muller’s scoring record for Germany three years ago, he insisted that he would never compare himself with the most legendary German striker of all. Ironically, it was the sort of humility for which Gerd Muller himself was known and loved.
In an era of endless pruning, posing and pouting, Klose’s quiet stardom will be missed. Throughout a remarkable career, he has remained one of the most likeable players in Europe.
The son of a Polish handball international, Klose grew up in West Germany, a fan of his local side Kaiserslautern.