Mario Gómez is a top-priced 8-1 (9.00) favourite to win the Golden boot at Euro 2012. The 26-year-old German striker was born in Riedlingen and plays club football for Bayern Munich. He joined Bayern for a record Bundesliga transfer fee estimated to be in the region of €30 million from Stuttgart. At the age of 21 he helped Stuttgart to the German title with 14 goals at the age of 21 and was named German footballer of the year.

Gómez has won many admirers with his versatile attacking play. He can shoot with either left or right and is also dangerous in the air. He also possesses great ball control and has great anticipation, particularly in the penalty area. He has proved to be the perfect foil to the speed and width provided by Ribery and Robben at Bayern and that has helped to make them one of the most dangerous attacking sides in Europe.

When betting on the top goalscorer it’s important to choose a player in a team that is predicted to go far in the tournament, and Germany is actually one of the top favorites to play in the Euro Cup 2012 final this summer.

Gómez is of German-Spanish descent, his father was born in Granada and his mother is German. He has both German and Spanish citizenship but opted to represent the German national side. He made his international debut in February 2007 against Switzerland, scoring Germany’s second goal and quickly becoming e a regular first team member. He courted controversy in 2010 when he stated that he believed that gay players should come out and that “they would play as if they had been liberated”. He also called for “a radical rethink” about homosexuality in football.

Played Champions League football since 2004

In 2004, Gómez had his first taste of Champions League football for Stuttgart against Chelsea in March and made his Bundesliga debut on 8th May. In the 2004-05 season, he scored 15 times in 24 games and was a first team regular by the following season. He played 30 times in the Bundesliga, scoring six times and also making five appearances in the UEFA Cup.

By 2006–07 he had become one of the top scorers in the Bundesliga but was sidelined through injury with a broken hand and, later, a torn knee ligament. He returned after a two month absence to score as a substitute in Stuttgart’s 3-2 victory over Bochum, a win that took them two points clear at the top. A last match win over Energie Cottbus the following week meant that they were crowned German Champions. He was named German Footballer of the Year 2007 and extended his contract until 2012.

The following season Gómez scored 19 goals in 25 appearances, second only to Luca Toni of Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga’s Top Scorer list. Gómez top scored in the domestic cup with six goals. His consistency gained him the nickname “Mr. Reliable”. On 26th May 2009, Gómez was signed a four year deal with Bayern Munich in a record transfer deal for the Bundesliga. Although he managed only ten goals in the league in his first season, he improved for the experience of being teamed up with international colleague Miroslav Klose.

The following year, an injury to Ivica Olic gave Gómez the opportunity to cement his place in the first team line up and he finished as top goalscorer in the League with 28 goals. He scored his 100th Bundesliga goal when completing his hat-trick in the 8-1 thrashing of St. Pauli. That was his fifth hat-trick in the Bundesliga in the 2010–11 season and his sixth in total. Gómez has now scored a remarkable 13 hat-tricks in his Bundesliga career, three with Stuttgart and ten with Bayern. Gómez also contributed eight goals in the Champions League and finished in second place in the season’s top scorers list.

Gómez continued to put away the goals in the 2011–12 season including a hat-trick away to Kaiserslautern and four goals in Bayern Munich’s 7–0 win over Freiburg. On 2 November 2011, he bagged a Champions League hat-trick against Napoli with Bayern going on to win 3–2. He scored four in the Bavarians 7-0 win over FC Basel in the same competition and he later signed an extension to his contract to keep him at the club until 2016.

Gómez followed up his debut goal for the national team by scoring twice in his second match, a Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino. Joachim Low called him up for the German squad for the finals, breaking up the established attacking combination of Podolski and Klose so that Gómez could spearhead the attack alongside Klose. Podolski moved to the left wing but the plan almost back-fired with the Germans only scrambling through the group stage. Following a poor game against Austria, Löw dropped Gómez to the bench and reverted back to the Podolski-Klose partnership. His only other appearance was as a substitute in the final against Spain which the Germans lost 1-0.

Surprisingly, Gómez endured a 15-game goal drought for the national team before scoring four against the UAE in 2009. Gómez was named among Löw’s 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but was used only as a substitute throughout the tournament. He was a much more regular performer in qualification for Euro 2012, scoring regularly including two against Austria. This finally removed the ghost of his traumatic Euro 2008 performance against the same side.

He gained his 50th cap for Germany in the 3-3 draw against Ukraine at the newly refurbished Olympic Stadium of Kiev. He was rewarded with the captaincy for the first time. The Germans are strongly fancied to challenge for the Euro 2012 title this year and Gómez is definitely going to be one of the key players and top Golden Boot contenders of the tournament.

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