German striker Miroslav Klose, the World Cup’s top scorer

Miroslav Klose rarely did things the easy way but was rewarded for his dogged determination with one of the most remarkable careers in world football.

A World Cup winner and the tournament’s record scorer with 16 goals, the Polish-born forward — who celebrates his 42nd birthday today — was one of the most versatile strikers of his generation, unbeatable in the air but equally clinical with the ball at his feet inside the box.

Yet he almost did not make it to the professional game and was the only member of the 2014 World Cup-winning team not to have gone through the German Football Association ’ s youth system.

The son of Polish parents with German ancestry who arrived in the country in 1985, Klose played for regional amateur clubs while training to become a carpenter.

He was finally plucked from the amateurs and got his breakthrough in the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern in 2000 at the age of 22.

He went on to have a successful Bundesliga career that included spells at Werder Bremen (2004-2007) and Bayern Munich (2007-2011), playing 307 matches and scoring 121 goals, while also winning domestic silverware.

His aerial timing and finishing earned him his first international cap in 2001 while his sense of fair play earned him widespread respect.

Klose, now an assistant coach at Bayern, finished his club career at Lazio in Italy from 2011 to 2016.

A prolific goalscorer at every club, his greatest achievements came with the German national team for whom he is the all-time top scorer with 71 goals in 137 matches. The softly spoken striker had again missed out on an international title, having also lost the 2002 World Cup final and finished runner-up at the 2008 European Championship.

However, he decided to give it another go, setting his sights on making the team for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Klose switched from Bayern to Lazio for more regular playing time and the gamble paid off. He scored his 71st and final goal for Germany in their historic 7-1 demolition of hosts Brazil in the 2014 World Cup semifinal to overtake Brazilian Ronaldo as the tournament’s all-time top scorer.

Days later he lifted that elusive World Cup trophy into the evening sky in

Rio de Janeiro to crown one of the game’s most remarkable careers that almost did not happen. —