Football Player's Biography 7: Mario Gómez

Full name	Mario Gómez García
Date of birth	10 July 1985 (1985-07-10) (age 25)
Place of birth	Riedlingen, West Germany
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	Striker

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 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 and Gómez contributed 14 goals he was elected German footballer of the year.

Personal life

Gómez was brought up in Unlingen, an Upper Swabian village and is of German-Spanish descent (his father is a Spaniard from Granada and his mother is German). He has both nationalities but decided to play for the German national team at the age of 17. His first appearance for the team was in February 2007 against Switzerland and he has been called up regularly since.

Club career

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 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" ("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 Gomez hit four goals to inspire VfB Stuttgart to a 4–1 victory over Bundesliga leaders VfL Wolfsburg.

Bayern Munich

On 26 May 2009, Gómez 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.^[2]^[3]^[4]
After an erratic first season at Bayern, Gomez 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 is currently at the top of the scoring charts in the Bundesliga with 18 goals to his name. Gómez also netted 8 times in the Champions League and is (as of 16 March 2011) among the top scorers, although Bayern have been eliminated from the tournament (in the 1/8 finals phase).

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.
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 him 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. 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,^[5] in Germany's 7–2 thrashing. Gómez was named as one of the six strikers in Joachim Löw's 23-man squad for theWorld Cup in South Africa. He featured in four out of seven German matches at the 2010 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 by replacing Stuttgart defensive midfielder Sami Khedira on 80 minutes.