Gómez scored twice against Eskişehirspor during the game on 7 March 2016, which ended 3–1 for Beşiktaş. His tally of 19 Süper Lig goals equalised the club record for “most scoring foreign player in single Süper Lig season”, along with Pascal Nouma and Demba Ba. Gómez scored twice in Fiorentina’s 3–1 win over Atalanta in the last 16 of the Coppa Italia on 21 January 2015, and followed this up with another brace 13 days later in a 2–0 quarter-final win away against Roma.
Gómez scored both goals as Beşiktaş beat Medipol Başakşehir 2–0 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium on 13 September 2015 in gameweek 4. On 21 September 2015, during the week 5 game against Gençlerbirliği, Gómez reportedly narrowly escaped a red card for an alleged deliberate elbow on Icelandic midfielder Ólafur Ingi Skúlason during the 55th minute. On 27 September 2015, Gómez scored two goals during the derby game against Fenerbahçe. Gómez played for VfB Stuttgart II in the Regionalliga Süd in the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons. He scored six goals in 19 appearances during the 2003–04 season and 15 goals in 24 appearances in the 2004–05 season. Gomez retires 11th on the all-time Bundesliga goalscorers list, while only four men have a better goals-to-minutes ratio.
MARIO GOMEZ HAILS BAYERN MUNICH WOMEN AS THEY QUALIFY FOR UECL GROUP STAGE
He subsequently returned to Germany by joining Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg for the 2016–17 season, helping them avoid relegation. He rejoined Stuttgart the season after, helping them achieve promotion to the Bundesliga after the 2019–20 campaign. Gómez damaged the ligaments in his left knee on 23 March in a 1–0 win at Napoli and was later ruled out for the remainder of the season by Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella. During the 2013–14 season, he scored three goals in nine league appearances and one goal in six Europa League appearances.
Gómez’ two first-half goals on 27 September helped Bayern defeat Manchester City 2–0 in the group stage of the Champions League. He would go on to make eight league appearances, one DFB-Pokal appearance, and one UEFA Cup appearance. Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor faced each other in a rescheduled week 19 game on 14 March 2016. Gómez scored the first goal ever scored in Beşiktaş’ newly built Vodafone Park in the 22nd minute of the encounter against Bursaspor during the 2015–16 season. The game ended 3–2 as Beşiktaş recorded their first win in this stadium.
On 26 May 2009, Gómez transferred to Bayern Munich for a Bundesliga record transfer fee, signing a four-year contract. The reported amount of the transfer fee varies from €30–35 million, depending on different sources. Gómez’s scoring levels were lower than past seasons in his first season for Bayern, with ten league goals and one Champions League goal netted. In the DFB-Pokal, however, Gómez was more prolific, with three goals in just four matches. ‘Super Mario’ was also included in Löw’s final 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, coming off the bench in all three of the team’s Group F matches, but was unable to find the target as the defending champions were eliminated. During Beşiktaş’ week 12 game against Sivasspor, Gómez scored the first goal of the game via a 44th minute penalty kick; the game ended 2–0.
He finished the 2014–15 season with 4 goals in 20 league appearances, four goals in four Coppa Italia appearances and two goals in eight Europa League appearances. Gómez scored his second brace of the Bundesliga campaign against Hertha BSC when Bayern won 4–0, followed by another brace on 29 October when Bayern defeated 1. On 11 December 2011, he scored his third brace of the season and sealed Bayern’s 2–1 win over southern rivals VfB Stuttgart, his former club. On 2 November 2011, he scored a hat-trick in a Champions League group stage match against Napoli.
“I saw the guys lift the trophy in Brazil, and I wasn’t there because of injury,” he said. Mario Gomez (c.) finally got his hands on the Champions League trophy in his final season with Bayern Munich. He was brought up in nearby Unlingen, an Upper Swabian village in Baden-Württemberg, about 100 km south of Stuttgart and 175 km west of Munich. His father, José “Pepe” Gómez García, is a Spaniard from Albuñán, Granada, and his mother, Christel Roth, is German. On 8 July 2013, Gómez signed a four-year deal for Serie A side Fiorentina for a fee believed to be around €20 million. He was officially unveiled as a Fiorentina player on 15 July to a crowd of 20,000 people.
“You have to be at 100 percent every day, and the stakes and expectations are always higher. Having won league titles and the Champions League trophy, I decided that I wanted to try something else. So I went to Italy, to play for Fiorentina.” “We were in Munich, in front of our fans, on our field,” Gomez lamented. “The game was ours, we were in control for most of the match, but we ultimately lost 4-3 on penalties. It remains the saddest day of my career. After all we had done, to not be the ones raising the trophy was hard. It’s still hard.”
Mario Gomez: 10 things on VfB Stuttgart’s legendary striker
; born 10 July 1985) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented the Germany national team over a period of 11 years between 2007 and 2018. Gomez returned to Germany in summer 2016, and played a key role in helping a struggling Wolfsburg side preserve their 20-year Bundesliga status. As well as grabbing 16 goals during the league campaign, he netted again as the Wolves saw off local rivals Eintracht Braunschweig in the relegation play-off. Gomez scored in consecutive wins over Northern Ireland and Slovakia to help Germany into the quarter-finals, where they got their revenge over Italy by winning a tense penalty shoot-out.
Gómez returned to action on 20 November 2012 in the club’s 1–1 draw with Valencia in the group stage of the Champions League, coming on as a 79th minute substitute for winger Franck Ribéry. The striker scored his first goal within a minute of his Bundesliga season debut, capping off a 5–0 victory over Hannover 96 on 24 November. On 5 December, Gómez opened the scoring for the hosts in their final group game of the Champions League, a 4–1 defeat of BATE Borisov, which secured the Bavarians top spot in the group over Valencia. Gómez scored 13 hat-tricks in his Bundesliga career, three with VfB Stuttgart and ten with Bayern. Gómez also netted eight times in the Champions League and finished in second place in the season’s top scorers, tied with Samuel Eto’o, although Bayern was eliminated in the round of 16 by Inter Milan.
After the season, he was named German Footballer of the Year for 2007 and extended his contract at Stuttgart until 2012. Gómez has both German and Spanish citizenship, but played for all German youth national teams from age 14. He made his debut for the Germany senior team against Switzerland on 7 February 2007 in Düsseldorf. Germany won the match 3–1, with Gómez scoring Germany’s second goal. Gómez gained his second cap for Germany by coming on as a substitute for Kevin Kurányi in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino.
Career stats
Gómez, along with Samuel Eto’o, was the top scorer of the first half of the Super Lig, with 13 goals; Gómez completed the first half of the season with highest shooting accuracy, with 29 shots on target. He also scored two goals in the UEFA Europa League by the end of 2015. Gómez scored his first league goal of the 2011–12 season on 20 August 2011 in Bayern’s win over Hamburger SV. Seven days later, Gómez scored a hat-trick away against 1. On 10 September, Gómez scored four goals as Bayern beat SC Freiburg 7–0, sealing four straight wins for the Bavarians and a return to the top of the Bundesliga table.
During his time at Bayern, his ability to appear “at the right place at the right time” proved to be one of Bayern’s most lethal attacking weapons, as Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben could often outrun defenders and provide a cross for Gómez. However, despite his goal-scoring abilities, Gómez was often accused of having limited skills and a poor work ethic. Gómez became the season Süper Lig top scorer with 26 goals, ahead of Samuel Eto’o and Hugo Rodallega. He completed the season with 28 goals in 41 games played in all competitions.
MARIO GOMEZ: FIORENTINA CAREER IN SUMMARY
On 10 December 2015, Gómez scored Beşiktaş’ only goal against Sporting in the Europa League Group Stage as the game ended 3–1 for the Portuguese side. On 14 December 2015, Gómez scored Beşiktaş’ first goal with a diving header in the derby game against Galatasaray that ended 2–1 for Beşiktaş. During week 16, Gómez opened the scoring tally for Beşiktaş while they were 2–0 down against Osmanlıspor; the game ended 3–2 in favour of Beşiktaş. On 28 December 2015, Gómez scored the 2nd goal of the week 17 encounter against Konyaspor, which ended in a 4–0 win.
The 2008 tournament may have ended in frustration for Gomez, but he has certainly enjoyed more success at the Euros than at the World Cup – unlike, for example, his Germany teammate Thomas Müller. In 2012, when at the peak of his powers with Bayern, he scored all three of his side’s goals in group-stage wins over Portugal and the Netherlands, although Die Mannschaftwere ultimately defeated by Italy in the semi-finals. After hitting 28 goals in all competitions for Stuttgart the following season, Gomez was included in Joachim Löw’s squad for UEFA Euro 2008, and at 23 years of age he was expected to take the tournament by storm. Germany’s new No.9 spurned a great chance early in their opener against Poland in Klagenfurt, then somehow failed to hit the target from barely three yards out against Austria in Vienna. Gomez found himself dropped to the bench for the knockout stages, only coming on as a late substitute in the final defeat to Spain, the country of his forefathers. On 4 June 2018, Gómez was selected in Joachim Löw’s 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
International
Because of his injury and the signing of Croatian striker Mario Mandžukić from VfL Wolfsburg, Gómez was relegated to the bench as Mandžukić hit a run of form that made him the Bundesliga’s top scorer. Gomez flourished in Istanbul, finishing as top scorer in the Turkish Süper Lig with 26 goals as his side conquered their first title in seven years. He might have stayed longer in the city but for the turbulent political situation, but he had nevertheless done enough to earn a spot at the Euros.
On 17 August 2016, Gómez returned to the Bundesliga by signing for VfL Wolfsburg. He scored his first goal for the club on 22 October, netting in a 3–1 defeat to Darmstadt 98. On 2 April 2017, Gómez scored his first hat-trick for the club, netting three times in seven minutes as Wolfsburg came from 2–0 down to draw 3–3 with Bayer Leverkusen. His third goal on the night was his 150th goal scored in the Bundesliga. He ultimately scored 16 league goals during the 2016–17 season as Wolfsburg narrowly avoided relegation via the relegation play-offs.
By end of week 7 of the Süper Lig, Gómez had scored six goals with a shooting accuracy of 50%, with six successful shots out of twelve. Gómez scored the equaliser during week 3 of Beşiktaş’ Group H game against Lokomotiv Moscow, which ended 1–1 at Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow, on 22 October 2015. Gómez scored the third goal in Beşiktaş’ week nine game against Antalyaspor, helping secure a 5–1 win.
“I understand every player when he says it’s a dream to be named captain of your team,” Gomez toldkicker. On 28 June 2020, Stuttgart announced that Gómez had ended his professional career, after scoring in his final match for the club and helping them secure promotion back to the Bundesliga. After keeping his team in the top flight, Gómez signed a new contract in June 2017. In August, manager Andries Jonker named him as captain, succeeding Diego Benaglio. Gómez scored only once in his last 15 appearances at the Volkswagen Arena.
On 20 July 2016, Gómez announced his farewell message via his Facebook account, stating that he would not continue to play for Beşiktaş. He described it as a “difficult decision” on a political basis, which was perceived as a reference to 2016 coup d’état attempt in Turkey. Gómez made his Süper Lig debut on 16 August 2015 against Mersin İdman Yurdu at Mersin Arena, when he was substituted on for Oğuzhan Özyakup in the 73rd minute.
Gómez scored 39 goals in all competitions in his second season with the Bavarian club. In the club’s next league match, on 20 April, Bayern managed another 6–1 victory and Gómez recorded a second brace in four days to lift Bayern to a 26th league victory of the campaign, a new Bundesliga record. Gómez led the line in the absence of Mario Mandžukić in the semi-finals of the Champions League on 23 April, poking home Bayern’s second goal in their 4–0 first-leg defeat of Barcelona.