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Thu 11 February 2021 | 10:30

Mario Gomez Biography

As one of the best strikers of Germany during the peak days of his career, in this article, we will take a look at Mario Gomez biography.

Mario Gómez, born on 10 July 1985 in Riedlingen, is a retired German professional footballer who played as a striker for German national team and many clubs during his playing career, between 2003 and 2020. Gómez started his football career with VfB Stuttgart, with whom he became German champion in 2007.

From 2009 to 2013 he played for FC Bayern Munich, winning two league titles and two cups with them, as well as winning the Champions League. After two years with AC Fiorentina in the Italian Serie A, the 2011 Bundesliga top scorer spent the 2015/16 season on loan in the Turkish Süper Lig playing for Beşiktaş, where he became champion and top scorer. After a year and a half with VfL Wolfsburg, Gómez returned to VfB Stuttgart in January 2018, where he ended his career in 2020.

He played for the German senior national team from 2007 to 2018. With them, he took part in the 2010 and 2018 World Cups and 2008, 2012 and 2016 European Championships.

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All You Need to Know About Mario Gomez Biography

Gomez has German-Spanish roots: his father José is Spanish and comes from Albunan, in the Andalusian province of Granada and his mother Christel is German.

Mario Gomez Information

As we know him much better now, in this section of

Mario Gomez biography

we want to share some general information about him such as

Mario Gomez nationality

.

Mario Gomez Bio

  • Full Name: Mario Gómez García

  • Nickname: Super Mario

  • Profession: Professional Footballer

Mario Gomez Physical Stats

  • Weight: 89 Kg

  • Height: 1.89 m

  • Eye Color: Blue

  • Hair Color: Dark Brown

Mario Gomez Football Information

  • Position: Striker

  • Jersey Number: 33

  • Professional Debut: 2003

Mario Gomez Date of Birth and Personal Info

  • Date of Birth: 10 July 1985

  • Birth Place: Riedlingen, West Germany

  • Zodiac Sign: Cancer

  • Nationality: German

In this section of

Mario Gomez biography

, we are going to share some information about

Mario Gomez childhood

with you, so stay tuned.

Mario Gomez Early Life

Mario Gómez Garcia was born in Riedlingen, Baden-Württemberg, in 1985, to a German mother and a Spaniard father from Andalusia. His double surname is not derived from his father and mother, as is common in Spain, but corresponds to his father's full surname. He grew up with his sister, who was three years older, in the neighboring village of Unlingen. His father had moved to Baden-Württemberg from Albunan in the province of Granada with his Andalusian family when he was a teenager. He was a professional tennis player.

To pursue his professional career in football, he finished the vocational school Johann-Friedrich-von-Cotta-Schule in Stuttgart East in 2003 after the twelfth grade with the academic section of the Fachhochschulreife. He had previously enjoyed private lessons at the elite school of football. Like many players of VfB Stuttgart, Gómez did his community service at the Vocational Training Centre in Waiblingen.

At the age of four, Gómez was enrolled at SV Unlingen. He began playing football there at the age of five and stayed until the D-youth. He then moved to the C-youth of FV Bad Saulgau, after which he was with SSV Ulm for one season. In the summer of 2001, at the age of just under 16, he moved to the youth department of VfB Stuttgart.

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Mario Gomez Profile

In the 2003/04 season, he made 19 Regionalliga appearances for VfB's amateur team, scoring six goals. He made his debut on 9 August 2003 (matchday 2), when he was substituted for Florian Lechner in the 79th minute, in a 1-0 home defeat to Kickers Offenbach; his first goal on 10 October 2003 (matchday 11) meant the 3-0 final score in the 88th minute in a home win against Rot-Weiß Erfurt.

His first Bundesliga appearance came on 8 May 2004 (matchday 32), when he replaced Imre Szabics in the 48th minute in a 2-1 defeat to

Hamburger SV

. He made his international debut on 9 March 2004 - coming on as an 81st-minute substitute for Andreas Hinkel - when his side drew 0-0 against Chelsea in the last 16 second leg of the Champions League.

In the 2004/05 season, Gómez scored 15 goals in 24 games for the amateur team and earned a call-up to the professional squad, for which he made eight first-team appearances. The following season he was used 30 times (6 goals) and also scored his first Bundesliga goal in a 2-1 away win at 1.

FSV Mainz

05 on 17 September 2005 (Matchday 5). In 2005, Stuttgart reached the League Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to

FC Schalke

04. He played five UEFA Cup matches (two goals) and three League Cup matches. He subsequently extended his contract with VfB Stuttgart until 30 June 2011.

A torn knee ligament suffered in a goalless draw at home to VfL Wolfsburg on 10 March 2007 (matchday 25) forced him to take a two-month break from playing and meant that he could not win the "top scorer's award" - although he was leading the scoring charts at the time - although he won the German Bundesliga title, his first as a professional. However, the DFB Pokal final on 26 May 2007 was lost 3-2 to 1. FC Nürnberg. Due to his successful season, Gómez was voted Germany's Footballer of the Year in 2007.

In the new season, Gómez scored 19 goals in 25 games and was thus the second-best scorer behind Luca Toni of FC Bayern Munich. He and his team were eliminated from the Champions League after the group stage and finished sixth in the league.

After a disappointing start to the 2008/2009 season with seven goals in the first half, Gómez improved and scored 17 goals in the second half. These included three goals in a 3-0 away win against 1. FC Köln on 18 April (matchday 28) and four goals on 9 May (matchday 31) in a 4-1 home win against league leaders and eventual champions VfL Wolfsburg. This made him the top German scorer in the Bundesliga, as in the previous year, but behind the two Wolfsburg players Grafite and Edin Džeko.

In this section of

Mario Gomez biography

, we are going to share some information about his

Bayern Munich

career.

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Bayern Munich

For a transfer fee of an estimated €30 million - making him Bayern Munich's most expensive signing at the time and also the most expensive in the

Bundesliga

- Gómez signed a 4-year deal with the German record champions for the 2009/10 season. In his first competitive match for Bayern on 2 August 2009, he scored two goals in a 3-1 win over SpVgg Neckarelz in the

DFB Pokal

. On 1 May 2010, Gómez played his 150th Bundesliga match against

VfL Bochum

.

In his first year at Bayern, he was initially unable to match his performances at VfB Stuttgart, but still scored 14 competitive goals and won the double (Bundesliga and DFB Pokal) at the end of the season. He also reached the final of the

Champions League

, which was lost against Inter Milan.

At the beginning of the 2010/11 season, Gómez only made short appearances. However, he was in the starting line-up for the first time in a while on matchday 7 against

Borussia Dortmund

but failed to score again. As a result of a good performance on the previous matchday, as well as several players being absent, Gómez was again in the starting eleven against Hannover 96 and scored all the goals in a 3:0 victory. In total, he scored twelve goals in that match and the following eight Bundesliga games until the winter break, in addition to six goals in the Champions League and two in the DFB Pokal.

He scored three times each against CFR Cluj and

VfB Stuttgart

. In total, he has scored five hat-tricks in that Bundesliga season - Gerd Müller's record is six - not only against Hannover and Stuttgart but also against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC St. Pauli. Against Leverkusen, Gómez scored his first "flawless" hat-trick in the Bundesliga. In the match at FC St. Pauli on 7 May 2011, he also scored his 100th Bundesliga goal. With a total of 28 goals for the season, Gómez won the Bundesliga goalscoring award for the first time, making him the sixth Bayern striker to do so.

With an additional eight goals in eight Champions League matches, which made him joint-second top scorer with Samuel Eto'o, and three goals in the DFB-Pokal, he reached a total of 39 goals in 45 competitive matches.

He also scored frequently from the start in the 2011/12 season. He scored another hat-trick in the match against 1. FC Kaiserslautern and four goals in the match against SC Freiburg. In the 2011/2012 Champions League group stage, Gómez became the first German player to score another hat-trick in Bayern's 3-2 win over

SSC Napoli

.

In the same season, he became the first German player to score four goals in a Champions League match in Bayern's 7-0 win over FC Basel in the round of 16. His total of twelve goals in the Champions League season would have been a record had Lionel Messi not scored 14 goals in the same year, surpassing Gómez. In the Bundesliga, too, he only reached second place in the scoring charts behind Klaas-Jan Huntelaar with 26 goals, having been in first place for a long time.

It is fitting that FC Bayern also had to settle for second place in the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal as well as in the Champions League that season. In the final of the Champions League, which took place in Munich, Gómez scored against Petr Čech in the penalty shootout but still lost with his team against

Chelsea FC

. Gómez renewed his contract at FC Bayern Munich until 2016 in April 2012.

After an injury sustained in preparation for the 2012/13 season, he was out for three and a half months. He did not return until the end of November 2012. His first match in the Bundesliga after the injury saw him score his first competitive goal of the season 26 seconds after coming on as a substitute against Hannover 96. The injury meant that Gómez lost his regular place to Mario Mandžukić, who was signed from

VfL Wolfsburg

.

Despite numerous rotations in and out of the game, Gómez scored frequently in the league. On 16 April 2013, after coming on as a substitute in the cup semi-final against VfL Wolfsburg, he scored a hat-trick within six minutes. On the 28th matchday, he secured the German Bundesliga title with FC Bayern, which had never been clinched so early in the Bundesliga before.

On 25 May, he won the Champions League, although he was not played in the final until shortly before the end of the match. He also scored two goals in the DFB Pokal final, which was won 3-2 in Berlin against his former club VfB Stuttgart, and with six goals he became the competition's top scorer.

By goals scored per minutes played, Gómez had the highest rate of any player in the history of FC Bayern Munich up to that time and temporarily held the club record. In a total of 11,267 minutes played, he scored 113 goals, which corresponds to 0.90 goals per 90 minutes. This rate even put him ahead of Gerd Müller, who scored 365 goals in 38,155 minutes, giving him a rate of 0.86 goals per 90 minutes.

Fiorentina

For the 2013/14 season, Gómez moved to

Serie A

side AC Fiorentina. He played his first match on 26 August 2013 (matchday 1) in a 2-1 win at home to Catania Calcio and also scored his first goals for

Fiorentina

on 1 September 2013 (matchday 2) in a 5-2 win away to

Genoa

. An injury caused by a torn medial ligament and a right knee strain in the match with Cagliari Calcio on 15 September 2013 (matchday 3) and subsequent tendonitis postponed Gómez's return to the team until 15 February 2014, when he played in another league match in a 2-1 home defeat to Inter Milan.

In the UEFA

Europa League

Round of 16 first leg, on 13 March 2014, Gómez was substituted in the 67th minute and scored the equaliser in the 79th minute to draw 1-1 with Juventus. On 23 March 2014, Gómez suffered a severe knee ligament strain in the match against SSC Napoli.

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Besiktas

He moved on loan to Turkish side

Beşiktaş

on 30 July of 2015. He made his

Süper Lig

debut on the first day of the season, 16 August, when he came on in the 74th minute in the victorious away game against Mersin (2-5). The following 13 September, he scored two goals against Başakşehir (2-0). On September 27, in the Istanbul derby between Besiktas and Fenerbahçe, second and first respectively in the league. Gómez scored a brace for the 3-2 victory that put his club on top.

At the end of the season, he was decisive in Besiktas' winning the Turkish title, scoring 26 goals in 33 league games and becoming the tournament's top scorer. On 20 July 2016, he announced that he would not return to Turkey due to political instability, therefore making his return to Fiorentina.

Wolfsburg and return to Stuttgart

He transferred to Wolfsburg on 17 August 2016 on a permanent basis. On 22 December 2017, after spending a year and a half with the Wolfsburg, he was bought by Stuttgart, making his return to the red-and-white team after 8 years.

He signed a contract until June 2020. On 15 December 2018, he scored a decisive double against Hertha Berlin, which brought him to 100 goals with Stuttgart. He finished the second half of the 2018-19 season with Stuttgart scoring 8 goals in 16 appearances. At the end of the 2018-19 season, he relegated with his team to the 2 Bundesliga, after scoring 7 goals in 33 appearances. With the goal he scored in the first leg of the promotion play-off against Union Berlin, which ended 2-2, he became the first player in history to score with two different teams in the Bundesliga relegation play-offs.

He chose to stay in Stuttgart despite relegation and scored his first goal in the opening league match against Hannover. On 28 June 2020, Gomez announced his retirement from playing football. In this section of Mario Gomez biography, we are going to share some information about his German national team career.

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German National Team

Since 2001, Gomez has featured for different youth national teams in Germany and in February 2007 he played his debut for the German national team, clearly demonstrating himself at Stuttgart. Mario received offers to play for the Spanish national team but opted to play for the country in which he was born.

Gomes' first major tournament with the German national side was at UEFA EURO 2008, where Germany reached the final. Mario was a rotation player and featured in four games. The same was true for Gomes at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Gomez was competing with his team-mate Miroslav Klose during qualifying for UEFA EURO 2012, and at the start of the tournament, he became the national team's starting forward. In the group stage of the tournament, Mario scored the only winning goal against Portugal and also scored a brace against the Netherlands (and was named Man of the Match). These goals helped the Germans progress to the knockout stages but Gomes scored no more. With three goals, Gomez, along with a number of other players, became the tournament's top scorer.

A distinct decline in his game and frequent injuries prevented Gomez from taking part in Germany's victorious 2014 World Cup squad, but a brilliant season at Besiktas ensured his return to the national side. As a substitute, he took part in the 2016 European Championship, where he scored the winning goal against Northern Ireland and also scored against Slovakia in the 1/8 final.

Gomez's last tournament with the national team was at the World Cup in Russia, which was a failure for the Germans. After the tournament, Mario has decided to quit playing for the national team. He played a total of 78 matches and scored 31 goals.

In this section of Mario Gomez biography, we are going to share some information about his playing style.

Style of Play

He was a physically powerful striker, able to kick with both feet, skilled in aerial play and with excellent dribbling abilities. He could play the forward position in various formations (3-5-2, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3), taking advantage of crosses and passes from his teammates. He was also good at taking penalties.

Reception

During the peak days of his career, Mario Gomez proved himself to be one the best German strikers of his generation, and if it was not for various injuries that sidelined him for long times, he could’ve definitely achieved much more in his football career.

Goal Celebration

As a prolific striker, Mario Gomez has scored so many goals during his career, both on the international and club career. One of the goal celebrations we have seen him doing most of the time, was when he opened both his arms wide and ran to the fans in joy.

Mario Gomez outside Football

In the music video for the song "Hope" by the rock band Room77, Mario Gomez stars together with Philipp Lahm and Miroslav Klose, his teammates from the German national team.

In 2008, Mario Gomez acquired a historic house in the middle of Backnang's old town, which after an elaborate restoration of the historic building, he opened a restaurant in there. At the time, the young player has announced that he decided to open the restaurant for his life after football.

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Mario Gomez Personal Life

In this section of Mario Gomez biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some stories about

Mario Gomez life story

and

Mario Gomez religion

.

Family, Children and Relationships

Mario Gomez met his childhood sweetheart Silvia Meichel when he was a 16-years old student in Stuttgart. After 9 years of relationship, the couple broke up in December 2012 when Mario Gomez was a Bayern Munich player.

In 2013, he met his new girlfriend Carina Wanzung who was a model based in Munich. She was 6 years older than Mario and was previously married to the successful mountain bike professional Tibor Simai between 2008 and 2010.

After 3 years of relationship, Mario and Carina decided to tie the knots in the summer of 2016. Mario’s bachelor party was in Barcelona a few weeks before his wedding. Their first child was born in December 2018.

Philanthropy

Mario Gómez was involved in the aid project 'We help Africa' during the 2010 FIFA World Cup as a city sponsor for 'Biberacher help Africa' in South Africa and for the 'All Kids are VIPs' project. He also participates in many charity football matches. In this section of Mario Gomez biography, we are going to share some information about his legal issues.

Legal Issues

At the time of writing this article, there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes regarding Mario Gomez in the media.

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Mario Gomez Career Statistics

In this section of Mario Gomez biography, we will take a look into his career stats on the club level and also the international level with German national team.

Club

During his 17 years professional football career which started at 2003 with VfB Stuttgart II and ended in 2020 at VfB Stuttgart, Mario Gomez has played a total of 587 matches in all competitions and scored 305 goals.

In the 4 seasons he spent at Munich, Mario Gomez managed to score 113 goals in 174 matches for them.

International

For 11 years between 2007 and 2018, Mario Gomez was a part of German national team, where he played a total of 78 matches in all competitions and scored 31 goals. His best year with the national team was 2011 where he scored 7 goals in 9 matches.

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Mario Gomez Honors

At club level, Mario Gomez has won many awards and titles including Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, DFL-Supercup, UEFA Champions League and Turkish Süper Lig.

With German national team, he finished as runner-ups in the Euro 2008 and there were third-placed at 2010 FIFA World Cup. He missed the German squad which won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

His most notable individual awards and titles include Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, German Footballer of the Year, UEFA European Championship Top Scorer, Bundesliga Top Scorer and Coppa Italia Top Scorer among many others.


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