Mario Gómez
| File:Mario Gomez Training.jpg | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mario Gómez García | ||
| Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | VfB Stuttgart | ||
| Number | 33 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of August 20 2008 | |||
Mario Gómez García (born July 10, 1985 in Riedlingen) is a German footballer of German-Spanish descent (his father is a Spaniard from Granada and his mother is German). Mario Gómez currently plays for VfB Stuttgart. Gómez was brought up in Unlingen, an Upper Swabian village.
Club career
In 2004, he played for 10 minutes for VfB in the Champions League in a game against Chelsea on March 9 and made his debut in the Bundesliga on May 8.
In the 2004–05 season, playing for the Regionalliga side, he scored 15 times in 24 games and was to be capped 8 times in the first team.
In the 2005–06 season, Gómez joined the first team permanently. He played 30 times in the Bundesliga, scoring six times at this level, his first goal coming on September 17, 2005. The striker also played five times in the UEFA Cup, scoring twice, and in three times in the League Cup.
In the 2006–07 season the youngster established himself as one of the top scorers in the Bundesliga. However, he broke his hand on March 10 2007 and suffered a torn ligament in his left knee. He made his comeback on May 12, 2007, and immediately scored after coming on from the bench. In that game, VfB defeated Bochum (3–2) and went two points clear heading into the Bundesliga's final weekend where they won at home against Energie Cottbus, thus becoming German football champions. Furthermore, VfB also reached final of the German Domestic Cup, where Gómez participated, but VfB lost to 1. FC Nuremberg. After the season, he was named German Footballer of the Year for 2007.
In July 2007, Gómez extended his contract at VfB until 2012.
While, in the 2007–08 season, the rest of his team struggled to keep performing at their 06–07 season standards, Gómez remained at an astonishingly high level, scoring 19 goals in 25 appearances, 2nd in the Bundesliga's Top Scorer list, just behind Bayern Munich's Luca Toni who scored 25 times. In the cup he actually scored the most goals of players.[1] Because of his recent development, many big clubs have been interested in the 23 year old forward. Gómez has recently gained the nickname “Mr. Zuverlässig” (lit. “Mr. Reliable”), as seen in his second of three goals against major league rival Werder Bremen (final score 6–3), where he managed to net in a virtually unreachable pass by teammate Yıldıray Baştürk.
National team
Gómez has both German and Spanish nationality, but played for all German youth national teams from age 17.
He made his debut for the German national team against Switzerland on February 7, 2007. Germany won the match 3–1, with Gómez scoring Germany's second goal.
Gómez gained his second cap for Germany, coming on as a substitute for Kevin Kurányi in a Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino, scoring two goals that contributed to a final 6–0 victory.
Joachim Löw called Gómez up to the German squad for Euro 2008. He played in all three of Germany's group games and was largely disappointing as he failed to recapture his club form and contrived to miss several seemingly straightforward chances (including missing from only three yards out with an open goal in front of him against Austria). When the knockout stages began, Löw decided to play with just one striker up front, thus relegating Gómez to the substitute's bench. He later came off the bench in the final of Euro 2008 for Miroslav Klose but couldn't prevent Germany from losing 1-0 to Spain.
International goals
- Scores and results table. Germany's goal tally first:
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | February 7, 2007 | LTU Arena, Düsseldorf, Germany |  Switzerland |
2-0 | 3-1 | Friendly |
| 2. | June 2, 2007 | Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany |  San Marino |
4-0 | 6-0 | UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying |
| 3. | June 2, 2007 | Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany | San Marino |
5-0 | 6-0 | UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying |
| 4. | February 6, 2008 | Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria |  Austria |
3-0 | 3-0 | Friendly |
| 5. | March 26, 2008 | St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland | Switzerland |
2-0 | 4-0 | Friendly |
| 6. | March 26, 2008 | St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland | Switzerland |
3-0 | 4-0 | Friendly |
Honours
Club
- VfB Stuttgart
- Bundesliga Champion: 2006-07
- German Youth Championship: 2003
National Team
- UEFA European Football Championship Runner-up: 2008
Individual
Career statistics
| Club | Season | Domestic League | Domestic Cup | European Competition[2] | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | ||
| VfB Stuttgart | 08-09 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| 07-08 | 25 | 19 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 32 | 28 | |
| 06-07 | 25 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 16 | |
| 05-06 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 38 | 8 | |
| 04-05 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 03-04 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 91 | 40 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 117 | 57 | |
| Career Totals | 91 | 40 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 117 | 57 | |
References
- ^ "DFB Pokal 2007/08 Top Scorers" (in German). weltfussball.de. June 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Counts for appearances at the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Intertoto Cup.
External links
Template:S-awards
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