"Messi called me and we talked." That is how Miroslav Klose describes the historic moment when Lionel Messi broke his record to become the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history. This was no mere shuffling of numbers, but an emotional meeting point between two eras. The bridge between the Argentine and the German was built by Lionel Scaloni, an old friend of Klose's and a former team-mate from their days together at Lazio, the Rome side. The German forward makes no secret of how unexpectedly meaningful that contact proved to be. "It was quite exciting for me," he admitted. For all the times the pair had gone head to head out on the pitch, it was the personal conversation that changed everything. "Speaking to Messi personally on the phone was very emotional," Klose recalled. Behind that acknowledgement lies the deepest respect, which Messi confirmed with the promise of a signed shirt. The question now is whether that symbolic gift will take pride of place in the collection of the German great who surrendered the record to Messi himself.
