Bayern buying spree continues with Klose signing

Bayern Munich signed striker Miroslav Klose from Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen yesterday, taking their close-season spending spree to around 70 million euros ($94.22 million).

Klose, top scorer at last year's World Cup finals in Germany, will take part in his first training session as a Bayern player on Friday, the club said in a statement.

The 29-year-old German international joins for an undisclosed fee estimated to be around 10.0 million euros after Werder agreed to sell him with a year left on his contract.

Klose is Bayern's eighth major signing after they finished fourth last season, missing out on a place in the Champions League.

The other new arrivals are Luca Toni, Franck Ribery, Ze Roberto, Jose Ernesto Sosa, Marcell Jansen, Jan Schlaudraff and Hamit Altintop.

Bayern spent around 60 million euros to bring in those first seven players.

While details of the deal with Werder were not disclosed, the club had said they were prepared to pay around 10 million euros for Klose, or wait until 2008 to sign him on a free transfer.

"It was a fair solution for both sides," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the club's website (www.fcbayern.de) after the deal was announced.

The move to the Allianz Arena means Klose will line up with his German international colleague Lukas Podolski.

The two Polish-born players made up a formidable partnership for Germany at the World Cup.

Klose, who had scored five goals as Germany finished runners-up at the 2002 World Cup, added another five in 2006 to finish as the tournament's top scorer. Podolski scored three.