The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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28 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2025 There were 15 to 20 high school coaches there, who really scouted us, which I didn't know in that moment. "There were no plans of me going to the U.S. and pursuing that dream. But once that camp ended, all the high school coaches were telling me they wanted me to play for their high school. I was kind of flabbergasted. I went home and told my parents that I was moving to the U.S. They looked at me crazy-eyed, which was pretty understandable." Obviously, it wasn't a done deal at that point. But Klein's parents quickly dis- covered it wasn't a pipe dream, either. "They told me, 'We'll see about all this stuff,'" Klein noted. "We didn't hear anything for a couple of days, then a bunch of emails started coming out to my mom's email. She was like, 'What is going on?' It was all the admission stuff to a bunch of high schools across the country, from L.A. to Texas to Georgia to Florida to Maine, Connecticut, wher- ever. That's when she realized, 'Oh, this is getting real.' "They never even blinked an eye as far as not supporting me. They supported me from the beginning." Sentiment aside, it's no small finan- cial matter to send a young man off to another country. Klein stressed his ev- erlasting gratefulness to his parents in that respect. "That was huge," he said. "I'm su- per thankful for that. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am now." He barely knew where he was anyway in the weeks and months to come. Fol- lowing two months of frenzied prepara- tion, Klein found himself on a flight to Atlanta. He insisted he really hadn't had time to deeply consider his decision. GEORGIA ON HIS MIND Then it hit him like a defensive end on a head-hunting mission toward the quarterback. "I was on a bus, on my way to way to Rabun Gap, which is in the middle of no- where in northern Georgia," Klein said, with a laugh. "That's where my boarding high school [Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School] was. My first thought was, I don't think I speak the language. Then I'm all by myself. I've got to grow up, and learn the language — right now." It's not merely that Klein didn't know the Southern-fried flavor on the Eng- lish language down in Georgia. He didn't know English, period. That made for many weeks of put-up-or-shut-up nav- igation through an unknown world, for someone still in high school. Klein just decided he was going to do it, with some assistance from above, and that was that. "The first months were obviously re- ally, really tough," Klein acknowledged. "More mentally than physically — being by yourself, leaving your whole family behind for a dream. That's really when I got close to God, and he's helped me tremendously to stick with it. There's a plan, and that's how I stuck it out to make it happen." Not that he was chicken, along the way. Finding good chicken proved an- other matter altogether. Growing up in Germany, Klein played soccer and didn't pick up the game of football until he was 14. His physical gifts are apparent though, and this year he was ranked No. 35 overall on Bruce Feldman's 2025 "College Football Freaks List" in The Athletic. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL