Striker Miroslav Klose is leaving Werder Bremen and as from 01.07.2007 will be an FC Bayern Munich player. The announcement was made by Werder general manager Klaus Allofs on Tuesday afternoon. Following a number of failed attempts to sign the player, Bayern Munich representatives met with Werder bosses on Monday to discuss a much improved offer from the Bavarian club. Klaus Allofs commented: “FC Bayern Munich have met our demands and we have agreed to the transfer under the new conditions.” Details of the transfer fee involved have not been released be either club.

The club decided to enter into negotiations upon the wishes of Miroslav Klose who explained to the Werder management that contrary to comments made on May 2nd 2007, he did not wish to see out his contract until 2008 but instead would prefer to make the immediate move to Munich.

“We know that we a losing a successful player but the change of mind on Miro’s part considering the new offer has altered the situation, which we had agreed to maintain until the end of the next season, and ushered us to discontinue our collaboration”, remarked Klaus Allofs.

Trainer Thomas Schaaf is also completely behind his management’s decision to allow the striker to leave the club: “It’s a pity that our journey together has come to an end. We of course would have liked to have seen Miro remain in the team if he had been 100% behind his decision to see out his contract with Werder. We are making the right step now though to avoid having our team start the new season with an added burden. We would very much like to thank Miro for the good and successful work we did together.”

The Werder general manager sees no immediate need to rush the signing of a new striker, Allofs commented: “We proved last season that we can perform at the top level without Miro. We are capable of performing in attack with Markus Rosenberg, Hugo Almeida, Aaron Hunt as well as the youngsters from our own ranks Kevin Schindler and Martin Harnik. Even Ivan Klasnic could return to the fold. We will keep an eye on the transfer market but are under no pressure to buy anyone.”

Miroslav Klose arrived in Bremen from 1.FC Kaiserslautern following Werder’s league and cup double win in 2004. In 89 Bundesliga games the goal poacher scored 53 goals. In the following three years with Werder he also made 21 Champions League appearances scoring five times and in 2006 he won the League Cup with the Green-Whites. During his time in Bremen Klose made himself an absolute must in the German national team and won the Golden Boot with five goals at the 2006 World Cup when Germany came third in the competition.