I’m a World Cup icon who quit football as it became unrecognisable – stars care more about cars, contracts and boots

WORLD CUP icon Miroslav Klose laid the boot into modern-day football, claiming stars these days are more concerned about cars and contracts than the beautiful game.

Revealing he quit playing because he “no longer recognised” the sport, Klose reckons football is now far removed from its “purest form” because of the focus on money and image.

The 45-year-old is widely recognised as one of the best strikers in history, having ended his career as Germany’s all-time top scorer.

Klose scored 71 goals in 137 games for his country while firing them to glory at the 2014 World Cup.

He remains the top scorer in the tournament’s history, netting 16 times across four different events.

And Klose also enjoyed a brilliant club career, scoring goals and winning trophies for the likes of Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.

His career came to an end in 2016 after five seasons with Italian giants Lazio.

After retiring, Klose moved into coaching as he took up roles with the German national team and Bayern Munich.

But the legend claims he made the decision to quit playing after falling out of love with the lifestyle.

He believes young players these days don’t put in a fraction of the work his generation used to.

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Klose hit out at the obsession with image and cash, insisting players are more worried about the car they drive and what boots they wear.

And as far as he’s concerned, the classic image of the beautiful game “no longer exists.”

Klose said in October: “I stopped playing football because I no longer recognised it. 

“Today, young players think about other things. As a child, I only thought about training and becoming someone in this sport that I always loved. 

“At Lazio and in the national team, after each training session, I put myself in a bathtub full of ice to avoid injuries. But the young players on the team systematically refused.

“When they saw me picking up the bags of balls to put them away at the end of training, they said to me ‘But who tells you to do that?’. 

“At that moment, I said to myself: ‘You’re 20 years old and you can’t help a 60-year-old worker?’

“They care more about whether their boots go with their socks. That’s why I said stop. The football I knew no longer exists.

“Today’s young players think first of cars, contracts with their sponsors, and their new boots. It is only after all these things that football comes. 

“For them, their image is the most important thing. Whereas for me, all that mattered was football in its purest form.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk