Mario Gomez

Mario Gomez Biography

Known for his lethal finishing, aerial threat and his composure in front of goal, Mario Gomez Garcia is a German footballer who currently plays for Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart. Mario was born on 10 July 1985 in Riedlingen, West Germany.

He is an out and out striker and is primarily right-footed even though he can shoot with both feet. His ability to position himself in the box is much appreciated by the wingers who seek out a good header towards goal.

Background

At 6 feet 2 inches, Gomez was considered to be the next great German striker after Miroslav Klose. His awareness in the box and the accuracy of his headers are some highlights of his career as a footballer.

Mario’s talent was recognised at a very early age when he played for the Germany U15 team in 1999. That is where things started looking up for the tall striker. He made three appearances for that junior side and was soon braced to begin his professional career at VfB Stuttgart.

From 2003-05, Gomez played for the reserve side and scored 21 goals in 43 appearances. He made his first team debut for the main side soon in a Champions League game against Chelsea. He was a sub and played for 10 minutes.

Debut

Mario Gomez made his international debut on 7 February 2007 against Switzerland. He scored a goal in a match that was won by Germany 3-1.

Rise to Glory

Gomez has both German and Spanish nationalities, but he played for all of Germany’s youth teams rising through the ranks. In 2008, Gomez was selected for the Euro 2008 squad but was largely disappointing. He failed to score a single goal and was widely criticized for not being clinical.

Gomez was then selected for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but he repeated his Euro 2008 failure of not scoring any goals. His best international stint came in the Euro 2012 tournament where he scored three goals and bagged an assist to become the second-best player of the tournament behind Spanish striker Fernando Torres.

Injuries in 2013 and 2014 left Gomez out of the team traveling to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Gomez scored 2 goals in the UEFA Euro 2016 to become Germany’s all-time leading goalscorer in the European tournament.

Gomez bagged a total of 71 caps for the senior side, scoring a decent 31 goals. In spite of the critics, Gomez has been able to prove that his work ethic and lack of skills was in no way a deterrent to become a goal-poacher.

Club Career

Mario Gomez spent most of his career at VfB Stuttgart, making 121 appearances and scoring 63 goals. It was only in the 2005-06 season that Gomez received regular first team minutes. He scored 8 goals in all competitions that season.

In the next season, he scored 14 goals from 25 appearances in spite of breaking his hand midway through the season. He was a crucial part of the 2006-07 Stuttgart side that ended up as Champions.

In the 2008-09 season, Gomez ended up as the second highest goalscorer in the Bundesliga, scoring 19 goals in just 25 appearances. He was the top scorer in the domestic cup DFB Pokal.

On 26 May 2009, Gomez made a move to Bayern Munich for a reported 30-35 million euros. His first season was erratic, and he scored just 10 goals in 29 appearances. However, in the second season, Gomez ended up with 28 goals to become Bundesliga’s top scorer of the 2010-11 season.

Gomez’s best was certainly at Bayern Munich, where he has 75 goals in 115 appearances, which include 10 hat-tricks.

On 8 July 2013, Gomez moved to Serie A side Fiorentina for a fee of around 20 million euros. He made 29 appearances and scored 7 goals, and was loaned to Besiktas the next season where he would end up as Super Lig top scorer and winning the title as well.

Gomez’s next move came in the 2016-17 season when he moved back to the Bundesliga to play for VfL Wolfsburg. He made 45 appearances for them and scored 17 goals.