Mario Gomez

Mario Gómez García (German pronunciation: [ˈmaːʁioː ˈɡɔmɛs]; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾio ˈɣomeθ]; born 10 July 1985 in Riedlingen) is a German footballer who plays as a striker for FC Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga. Gómez joined Bayern after six years in Stuttgart. The fee was a record for a player transferred in the Bundesliga, estimated to be 30–35 million euro. When Stuttgart became champions in 2006–07, Gómez contributed 14 goals and was elected German footballer of the year.

VfB Stuttgart

In 2004, Gómez 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 DFB-Pokal.

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. 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 2006–07 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 24 times. In the cup Gómez was even the top scorer with six goals. 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" ("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 2008–09 season Gómez hit four goals to inspire VfB Stuttgart to a 4–1 victory over Bundesliga leaders VfL Wolfsburg.

Bayern Munich

On 26 May 2009, Gómez was eventually transferred to Bayern Munich on a Bundesliga record transfer fee, signing a four-year contract. The amount of the transfer fee varies from 30–35 million euro, depending on different sources.

After an erratic first season at Bayern with only 10 goals in 29 league appearances, Gómez established himself as a starter during the 2010–11 season (to an extent at the expense of Miroslav Klose and due to the injury sustained by Ivica Olić) and finished as top goalscorer in the Bundesliga with 28 goals. He scored his 100th Bundesliga goal with his third strike in an 1–8 away demolition of FC St. Pauli on 7 May 2011, the hat-trick already being his fifth in the Bundesliga in the 2010–11 season, and his sixth overall, adding in his hat-trick against Cluj in the Champions League. Gómez has scored 10 hat-tricks so far in his Bundesliga career, three with Stuttgart and seven with Bayern.

Gómez also netted eight times in the Champions League and finished in second place in this season's top scorers, tied with Samuel Eto'o, although Bayern were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Internazionale.

Gómez started the 2011–12 season in similar vein to the previous season, scoring a hat-trick away to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and on 10 September 2011 getting four goals in Bayern Munich's 7–0 rout of Freiburg. On 2 November 2011, he netted another hat-trick in a Champions League group stage game against Serie A club S.S.C. Napoli. Bayern went on to win 3-2.

Euro 2008

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.

After Gómez impressed in pre-tournament friendlies, Joachim Löw called him up to the German squad for Euro 2008. Löw broke up the strike partnership of Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose with Podolski moving out to the left wing at the expense of talismanic midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and Gómez partnering Klose up front. Unfortunately, he was not able to reproduce his club form and missed several clear-cut chances including a crucial one in the last group match against Austria. Germany eventually won courtesy of a Michael Ballack free kick to seal a place in the knock-out stages but Löw dropped Gómez to the bench and reverted back to the Podolski-Klose partnership. He was an unused substitute in the quarterfinal and semifinal and later came off the bench in the final of Euro 2008 for Miroslav Klose but could not prevent Germany from losing 1–0 to Spain.

World Cup 2010

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.

Gómez was named as one of the six strikers in Joachim Löw's 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He featured in four out of seven German matches at the World Cup, all from the substitutes bench against Australia, replacing Mesut Özil in the 73rd minute, Serbia, coming on for left back Holger Badstuber in the 77th minute, England, coming on for fellow forward Miroslav Klose in the 72nd minute and Spain replacing defensive midfielder Sami Khedira on 80 minutes. Again he did not score a goal at a major tournament.

Euro 2012

Although being the second choice behind Miroslav Klose as center-forward during Germany's qualification for Euro 2012, Gómez played regularly and contributed goals against every opponent of that campaign: Kazakhstan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Belgium. This includes two goals against Austria in Germany's 1–2 away win in the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, netting into the very same goal in which despite good goalscoring opportunities he couldn't score three years earlier during Euro 2008, a performance for which he was criticized by the German media and fans of the Mannschaft. Observers saw him overcome a little trauma and in a spontaneous gesture of relief, he kissed the goalpost after he scored the first goal.

Prior to the Euro 2012 in an 3-3 draw against Ukraine in the opening game at the renewed Olympic Stadion of Kiev - the site of the Euro 2012 final match - Gómez captained Germany for the first time. It was his 50 international cap, and he (age 26) was Germanys oldest player in the starting lineup.