Mario Gómez
International career
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, in Germany's 7–2 thrashing.
Gómez was named as one of the six strikers in Joachim Löw's 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He featured in four out of seven German matches at the 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 Real Madrid's defensive midfielder Sami Khedira on 80 minutes.
Although being the second choice behind Miroslav Klose as center-foward during Germany's qualification for Euro 2012, Gómez played regularly and contributed goals against every opponent of that campaign: Kazakhstan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Belgium. This includes two goals against Austria in Germany's 1–2 away win in the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, netting into the very same goal in which despite good goalscoring opportunities he couldn't score three years earlier during Euro 2008, a performance for which he was criticized by the German media and fans of the Mannschaft. Observers saw him overcome a little trauma and in a spontaneous gesture of relief, he kissed the goalpost after he scored the first goal
