The Curious Case of Miroslav Klose - International Superstar & Club Football Enigma

He may be Germany's record goalscorer and World Cup football's top marksman, but there have - in some circles - been questions raised over whether Miroslav Klose was actually that good.

It may seem an absurd question to ask for one of international football's greatest ever poachers, but when you take a look at his club career it doesn't really seem to add up.

For many England supporters, the notion of a player playing better for his country than for his club seems bizarre, as for decades Three Lions fans have witnessed some of the Premier League's biggest stars wilt under the pressure of playing for their country.

Yet, for Klose, the world stage was his playground, as he thrived under the spotlight at countless major tournaments despite his average domestic form.

The German hotshot managed to bag a remarkable 16 World Cup goals in four editions of the tournament - stretching from 2002 to 2014 - and finished at least third in all of them.

His goalscoring heroics put him ahead of the likes of Ronaldo, Pelé, Gurd Muller and Just Fontaine - who scored 13 times at the 1958 tournament - in the World Cup scoring charts.

Those legendary icons of world football toppled by a man who, let's face it, didn't turn up many trees for most of the year - until international football came around, of course.

Klose was somewhat of a late starter to top-flight football, making his Bundesliga debut at the age of 21 and didn't score his first German top tier goal until he was 22.

He quickly made up for lost time, bagging 16 goals in the 2001/02 season, albeit this was by far the highest scoring season in his Kaiserslautern career. After six years with Die Roten Teufel, he joined Werder Bremen, notching an impressive 53 goals in just 89 Bundesliga games.

After sealing a move to the giants of Bayern Munich you'd assume the upward trajectory of his club career would continue. Better players, better coaches should equate to more goals, surely?

However, despite winning two league titles, Klose was pretty anonymous in Bavaria in truth, scoring just 24 times in the league in four years.

He may have been thwarted by the presence of Luca Toni and Mario Gomez, but such a poor goalscoring return is inexcusable.

Yet while his club career stagnated, the Poland-born forward found solace in turning out for Die Mannschaft, scoring the winner against Austria on his debut back in 2001.

At the 2002 World Cup he somehow scored five goals all with his head - including a hat-trick of headers against Saudi Arabia in an 8-0 win - before notching a further five in 2006 to finish as the golden boot winner.

In South Africa in 2010, he was on hand to break English hearts as he scored the opening goal in the controversial 4-1 round of 16 victory. (While we all know Lampard's goal crossed the line, let's not kid ourselves into thinking England should have won - especially considering Matthew Upson was starting at the back.)

At every major tournament the striker seemingly delivered the goods for his nation, no matter the scenario at club level. In 2014, the then 36-year-old was still an effective presence in the squad, as that ruthless German side dismantled a toothless Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, before the Germans stole victory in the final.

The front-flip extraordinaire saw out his playing days with Lazio before retiring in 2016 after a five-year spell in Italy, where he scored a respectable but not exceptional 54 goals in 149 Serie A games.

While a goal every three games is certainly nothing to be ashamed about, is it truly enough for Klose to warrant a place among the pantheon of great strikers in modern football history?

We will never know why it was that he was so well suited to major tournaments, but with a World Cup under his belt he's probably not complaining. Six years on from that World Cup success - and his international retirement - the conundrum that is Miroslav Klose is still yet to be figured out.