Klose: I nearly joined Barcelona

15-Feb-2013 10:45:00 PM

The Germany international revealed he came close to signing for the Catalan giants in 2007 prior to his move to Bayern Munich from Werder Bremen

Lazio striker Miroslav Klose has admitted he nearly joined Barcelona earlier in his career.

The 34-year-old moved to Bayern Munich for €7.5 million from Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen in the summer of 2007, but his agent revealed earlier this week his client came close to signing for the Catalan giants prior to his move to the Allianz Arena.

The Germany international confirmed his agent's comments, telling Mundo Deportivo: "The possibility of joining Barca is now far away, but I came very close in 2007.

“I would love to play for Barcelona because they are definitely one of the best teams in the world.

“Certainly it would have been great, because football is played there as I like it. But as I said, that is in the past.

“And I ended up going to Bayern. It was a good decision, because as I said, I learned a lot.”

Klose added that the needs of his family motivated his decision to join Lazio from Bayern in 2011.

“I had offers from clubs in England, Germany and Turkey, but we opted for Lazio after talking with my wife and children," he added.

“My wife went to ‘inspect’ all the teams, weigh the pros and cons and we opted for Italy, where we are very happy.”

Klose was in Spain this week to receive a fair play award at the annual Mundo Deportivo Gran Gala, after he admitted to scoring a goal against Napoli with his hand, a strike which was promptly disallowed.