{"id":26305,"date":"2020-07-07T22:18:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T16:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/?p=26305"},"modified":"2020-07-07T22:18:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T16:48:19","slug":"celebrating-claudio-pizarro-and-mario-gomez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/celebrating-claudio-pizarro-and-mario-gomez\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Claudio Pizarro and Mario Gomez \u2014 Two of Bundesliga&#8217;s greatest stalwarts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the last couple of weeks, German football bid adieu to two of its most cherished jewels \u2014 Claudio Pizarro and Mario Gomez. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>The two forwards weren\u2019t Ballon d\u2019Or contenders, nor did they bag individual accolades like many of their contemporaries. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Yet, they\u2019d be remembered for generations, through folklore and songs of sacrifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mario Gomez \u2013 The evergreen<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mario_G%C3%B3mez\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mario Gomez<\/a> isn\u2019t the first name that comes to mind when we think about Germany\u2019s modern-day greats. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Surprisingly, his exclusion isn\u2019t due to a lack of technical prowess, but It\u2019s because of his selfless and PR-free image. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Gomez was never the poster boy of the biggest clubs in Europe, he wasn\u2019t the quickest on the pitch, and he didn\u2019t score screamers regularly. What he did do, however, was leave every fibre of his being on the pitch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mario G\u00f3mez scored 110 goals in 230 games across all competitions for VfB Stuttgart and was named German Footballer of the Year after the 2006\/07 Bundesliga-winning season.<br><br>His career finishes with a goal for his boyhood club. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f8JKvweKQa\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/f8JKvweKQa<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Squawka (@Squawka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka\/status\/1277288400693813248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June 28, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Mario Gomez graduated from VfB Stuttgart\u2019s famed youth system in 2003 and immediately joined Stuttgart II in the Regionalliga Sud \u2014 the fourth tier of Germany\u2019s league system at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Soon enough, he managed to impress his coaches and earned himself a call-up to the first team in the German first-division. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>For the first two seasons, between 2003 and 2005, Gomez hardly got the opportunity to prove his mettle. From his third season, the young forward started making a name for himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>In the 2005-06 campaign, Mario Gomez racked up eight goals in 38 appearances across all competitions. Next season, he doubled his tally \u2014 16 \u2014 in eight games fewer and helped his team beat the heavyweights to the Bundesliga title. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>In the next two terms, he mustered 28 and 35 goals respectively, earning himself a contract from <a href=\"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/category\/football\/football-competitions\/bundesliga\/\" class=\"rank-math-link\">Bundesliga<\/a> giants, <a href=\"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/category\/football\/football-teams\/bayern-munich\/\" class=\"rank-math-link\">Bayern Munich<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p>An out-and-out star at Stuttgart, he found himself in a sea of world-beaters in Bavaria. However, that didn\u2019t stop him from realising his own potential. Here, too, he endured a slow start but came to life in the 2010-11 campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>The perfect-haired centre-forward racked up 39 goals in 45 appearances across all competitions, emerging as one of the finest forwards in Europe. He extended his fine run into the next campaign as well, this time providing a return of 41 goals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mario Gomez has retired \ud83d\ude22<br><br>&quot;I was sure at the beginning of the season that we would go up. So I decided that this would be my last year at VfB Stuttgart, in Germany and probably as a football player.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LEXtRysSNs\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/LEXtRysSNs<\/a><\/p>&mdash; GOAL (@goal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/goal\/status\/1277277152602476545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June 28, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>After his stint ended with Bayern, the forward swapped a few jerseys \u2014 Fiorentina, Besiktas, and Wolfsburg \u2014 before landing back to where it all started, at Stuttgart. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>The team suffered one of their worst ever campaigns in 2018-19 and dropped down to the second division. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Mario Gomez, instead of looking for better opportunities, remained determined and helped the club clinch promotion in the final days of the season. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>The 34-year-old pitched in with seven goals in 24 appearances, which is invaluable to a team fighting for promotion, before hanging up his boots.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Claudio Pizarro<\/strong> &#8211; <strong>Werder Bremen\u2019s messiah  <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Peruvian forward, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Claudio_Pizarro\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Claudio Pizarro<\/a>, was one of the most gifted players of the game. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Yes, he didn\u2019t shatter records, left, right, and centre, but that didn\u2019t keep him from attaining immortality, both at Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Like Mario Gomez, Claudio Pizarro wasn\u2019t hailed as one of the greatest of the game. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>He didn\u2019t dazzle with his footwork or score Puskas-worthy goals. Yet, he was omnipresent, always at the heart of something important. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>The forward, who went on to score 337 goals in 872 games throughout his career, got his big break in 1999, signing for Werder Bremen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2014490 Bundesliga games<br>\u2014197 goals<br>\u20146 Bundesliga titles<br><br>Today, after Werder Bremen&#39;s relegation play-off win vs. Heidenheim, Claudio Pizarro waves goodbye to football at the age of 41. \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddea <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hqm6bXcoMY\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/hqm6bXcoMY<\/a><\/p>&mdash; B\/R Football (@brfootball) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brfootball\/status\/1280238052259086336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 6, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Only 20 at the time, Claudio Pizarro had a mountain to climb and a million doubters to prove wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>He got to feature in 25 Bundesliga games that season and paid back with 10 important goals, emerging as one of the most prominent youngsters of the league. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>His apex, however, came in the UEFA Cup third round, when he helped his side nick a 4-3 aggregate win over Olympique Lyonnais after Bremen endured a 3-0 defeat in the first leg. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Claudio Pizarro scored the fourth and decisive goal of the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Another successful season later, Bayern Munich came calling and eventually signed him in the summer of 2001. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Over the next six years, he became an integral part of Bayern and racked up 100 goals in 256, helping the Bavarians to three Bundesliga titles and three DFB Pokals. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Claudio Pizarro then completed a brief stint at Chelsea \u2014 becoming the first Peruvian to play for the club \u2014 but was quick to return to Germany, to the comfort of Werder Bremen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Claudio Pizarro retired from football at the age of 41 after Werder Bremen avoided relegation on Monday \ud83d\ude22<br><br>\ud83c\udfc6 &#8211; Six Bundesliga titles<br>\u26bd &#8211; 197 goals<br>\ud83c\udfac &#8211; 490 matches<br><br>\u2b50 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lJZ1JK1huQ\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/lJZ1JK1huQ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; GOAL (@goal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/goal\/status\/1280343280388050946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 7, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Again he proved to be decisive for the German outfit and ended up netting 88 goals in 144 appearances across four season. Bayern Munich once again identified Pizarro as an ideal candidate and snatched him up. He paid back their faith by pitching in with 25 goals in 71 appearances.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Claudio Pizarro enjoyed spells at Werder Bremen and then FC K\u00f6ln before finally settling down with Bremen in the 2018-19 campaign. He scored only two goals in the final season \u2014 19\/20 \u2014 but had the privilege of seeing Bremen prevail in the Bundesliga playoffs before calling it a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-text-align-center has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kyrosports\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Follow us on facebook for more sports news &amp; updates (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"rank-math-link\">Follow us on facebook for more sports news &amp; updates<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last couple of weeks, German football bid adieu to two of its most cherished jewels \u2014 Claudio Pizarro and Mario Gomez. The two forwards weren\u2019t Ballon d\u2019Or contenders, nor did they bag individual accolades like many of their contemporaries. Yet, they\u2019d be remembered for generations, through folklore and songs of sacrifice.\u00a0 Mario Gomez [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":26309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,5460,16,841],"tags":[4707,4761,5608,5609],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kyrosports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}