Miroslav Klose confirms he will definitely be leaving Bayern Munich this summer

It was more of an inevitability than a possibility, but Miroslav Klose has confirmed that he will be leaving Bayern Munich this summer in an interview with kicker. His contract is expiring at the end of this season, but he does not want to renew it.

Klose recently completed his DFB coaching course at the beginning of the month along with fellow Bayern coach Danny Schwarz, which widens the possibilities of managerial positions he can now pursue and hold. He received congratulatory messages from some members of Bayern’s fornt office for the accomplishment; “Kalle Rummenigge congratulated me on my passing soccer teacher, as did Hasan Salihamidzic briefly,” Klose said.

With Julian Nagelsmann coming in from RB Leipzig to take over for Hansi Flick, he was originally supposed to bring two assistants with him, but that’s no longer set in stone. Still, though, there was no guarantee of a coaching spot alongside or under Nagelsmann for Klose. It was reported that Oliver Kahn couldn’t make any promises to Klose as far as a spot still being available for him under Nagelsmann, but Klose said that it wasn’t the case. “Promises? What is that supposed to mean! I can hardly imagine that Olli Kahn said it like that. I played with him for so many years, at FC Bayern and in the national team. I think if he had something like that to say to me, he would discuss it with me personally,” the former striker explained.

Despite what’s been said in and around the club and it’s front office, Klose said that there is a mutually clear understanding that he will be leaving the club at the end of the season. “What happens to me and where I will be in the next season is still entirely up to me. I have a very clear plan. And I think Olli Kahn knows that very well. And he also knows that I won’t be here next season,” Klose said.

Right now, Bayern players and staff members, along with all of the other Bundesliga clubs are in hotel quarantine for the final match weeks of the season, so Klose said that they aren’t able to hold concrete talks over his future until they can break quarantine after the season’s over. “I am currently in hotel quarantine with FC Bayern and cannot yet have the final talks about my future. But there are several exciting options and I am sure that a decision will be made soon about what I will do in the coming season. And as I said: I decide, no one else!”

Regardless of what Klose’s future holds, Bayern is still losing a top caliber coach in Klose. He played an integral role for Bayern’s U-17s and as one of Flick’s assistants this season. He was also an important manager-player liaison for striker Robert Lewandowski. Klose, as a striker during his playing days, would spend a lot of one-on-one time with the Polish ace to help him work on instinctiveness, finishing techniques, and positioning, among other things.