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Mario Gómez

Personal information
Full name	Mario Gómez García
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Bayern Munich
Number	33
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20:29, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Mario Gómez García (born 10 July 1985 in Riedlingen) is a German footballer of German-Spanish descent (his father is a Spaniard from Granada and his mother is German). Gómez plays for Bayern Munich and the German national team. Gómez was brought up in Unlingen, an Upper Swabian village.

Club career

VfB Stuttgart

In 2004, he played 10 minutes for VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League in a game against Chelsea on 9 March and made his debut in the Bundesliga on 8 May.

In the 2004–05 season, playing for the Regionalliga side, he scored 15 times in 24 games and was to be capped eight 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 17 September 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 10 March 2007 and suffered a torn ligament in his left knee. He made his comeback on 12 May 2007, and immediately scored after coming on from the bench. In that game, VfB Stuttgart defeated VfL 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 champions. Furthermore, VfB Stuttgart also reached final of the DFB-Pokal, where Gómez participated, but VfB Stuttgart 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 Stuttgart 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, second 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. 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 Bundesliga rival Werder Bremen (final score 6–3), where he managed to net in a virtually unreachable pass by teammate Yıldıray Baştürk. In the 2008-2009 season Gomez hit four goals to inspire VfB Stuttgart to a 4-1 victory over Bundesliga leaders VfL Wolfsburg.

Bayern Munich

On 26 May 2009, he transferred to Bayern Munich for 30 million euro setting a new Bundesliga record for the highest transfer fee.

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 7 February 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.

In a friendly match against the United Arab Emirates played on 2 June 2009, Gómez netted four goals, ending his 15-game goal drought for the national team, in Germany's 7–2 thrashing. He is only the fourth German after Gerd Müller, Michael Ballack and Lukas Podolski to score four goals in an international match.

International goals

Scores and results table. Germany's goal tally first:

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	7 February 2007	LTU Arena, Düsseldorf, Germany	Switzerland	2-0	3-1	Friendly
2.	2 June 2007	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany	San Marino	4-0	6-0	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying
3.	2 June 2007	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany	San Marino	5-0	6-0	UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifying
4.	6 February 2008	Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria	Austria	3-0	3-0	Friendly
5.	26 March 2008	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Switzerland	2-0	4-0	Friendly
6.	26 March 2008	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Switzerland	3-0	4-0	Friendly
7.	2 June 2009	Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates	2-0	7-2	Friendly
8.	2 June 2009	Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates	4-0	7-2	Friendly
9.	2 June 2009	Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates	5-0	7-2	Friendly
10.	2 June 2009	Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates	7-2	7-2	Friendly

Honours

Club

VfB Stuttgart

• Bundesliga Champion: 2006–07
• German Youth Championship: 2003

Individual

• German Footballer of the Year: 2007
  • Most expensive Bundesliga transfer

Career statistics

As of 3 June 2009

References

1. "DFB Pokal 2007/08 Top Scorers" (in German). weltfussball.de. June 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2008.
2. "Stuttgart's Gomez joins Bayern Munich". uk.reuters.com. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
3. "Gomez wechselt zu Bayern – Interesse an Neuer" (in German). Welt.de. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
4. "Gomez ist wieder da - Neuer überzeugt voll und ganz". Kicker.de. 2 June 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2009.
5. Counts for appearances at the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Intertoto Cup.

External links

• Gómez's official site
• Career stats at fussballdaten.de Template:De icon

v t e Germany squad – UEFA Euro 2008 runners-up
1 Lehmann 2 Jansen 3 Friedrich 4 Fritz 5 Westermann 6 Rolfes 7 Schweinsteiger 8 Frings 9 Gómez 10 Neuville 11 Klose 12 Enke 13 Ballack (c) 14 Trochowski 15 Hitzlsperger 16 Lahm 17 Mertesacker 18 Borowski 19 Odonkor 20 Podolski 21 Metzelder 22 Kurányi 23 Adler Coach: Löw

• 1985 births
• Living people
• German footballers
• Germany international footballers
• Germany B international footballers
• Germany under-21 international footballers
• VfB Stuttgart players
• First Bundesliga footballers
• Germans of Spanish descent
• Football (soccer) forwards
• UEFA Euro 2008 players