Miroslav Klose shaping FC Nuremberg’s youth as they sit second in the 2. Bundesliga
Miroslav Klose's FC Nuremberg sit second in the 2. Bundesliga this season in Germany as of 10 November 2026, with the club's manager outlining a youth-focused approach while his side sit joint-top scorers in the league.
Klose is Germany's all-time leading goalscorer and scored 16 goals across four World Cup tournaments; until this summer he had netted more than any other player in men's World Cup history, a mark now bettered only by Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi. His playing career yielded more than 300 goals across spells that began in Germany's amateur leagues and included Kaiserslautern, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Lazio, and he says all but two of those goals came inside the penalty area.
Klose stresses the practical work required to create scoring opportunities and the need for a player prioritised to finish in the box. "For me, the most important thing is that you need someone who is there to score goals. You need someone in the box because that's where you're closest to the goal," he said, adding that practising the final ball and developing automatisms are crucial.
He describes detailed preparation from his playing days — analysing opponents' movement and a goalkeeper's positioning — as informing his coaching. "When goals are scored, the whole team deserves credit," adds the 48-year-old, who was as selfless as he was ruthless; Klose was 36 when he won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, having lost the 2002 final to Brazil and surpassing Ronaldo's goal record in a 7-1 semi-final thrashing of hosts Brazil.
Klose's personal background and late rise are part of his coaching narrative: born in communist Poland, his father Josef — also a footballer, most notably for Auxerre — moved the family to West Germany when Klose was eight. He was not in a major academy, played in the lower leagues while training as a carpenter, reached top-flight football in his early 20s and retired from playing aged 38; he was still in fifth-tier amateur football at 20 before becoming the World Cup's all-time top goalscorer in 2014.
His managerial CV includes work with the national team, a spell coaching Bayern Munich's under-17s, a brief period as Hansi Flick's assistant at Bayern and his first senior role at Rheindorf Altach in Austria. He joined Nuremberg in 2024 and guided them to 10th and eighth-placed finishes before this season's run; Nuremberg currently sit second behind Hertha BSC and are the league's joint-top scorers, with the club aiming for a return to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2019.
Youth development is central to Klose's project: Nuremberg have the youngest average age in the 2. Bundesliga at 23.3 years, according to Transfermarkt, and seven of the 11 players to have played the most minutes this season are 22 or under. Among those leading the side is top scorer Mohamed Ali Zoma, already capped by Italy, while Klose pointed to 17-year-old Marc Kornwachs as an example. "When I first arrived, I spoke to the youth coaches about the club's DNA and its coaching philosophy, and what they focus on," he said, adding: "As a coaching team, we're brave enough to give them opportunities when we see that they can compete at this level. That's the first step." "Of course, everyone gets a lot of praise, as is currently the case with Marc Kornwachs," he added. "But his journey isn't over yet. Now it's about helping him become more consistent and establishing himself, while continuing to develop his game and take further steps forward."
Klose says he continues to learn as a manager and prefers a possession-based approach that can be adapted to different situations. "I've said that I'm already a much better manager than I was three years ago. That's perfectly normal, and you have to embrace it. I've always been willing and eager to learn, and I've always been a hard worker. That isn't going to change," he said, and: "Personally, as a player, I always liked having the ball for long periods, and that hasn't changed."
Nuremberg's current league position and scoring record underpin their promotion ambitions: sitting second in the 2. Bundesliga and sharing the top-scorer spot, the club pursue a return to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2019 as the season continues.
