Mario Gomez finally retired from professional football after 17 illustrious years at the age of 34 years old.
The Stuttgart striker scored his final goal in 3-1 defeat to Darmstadt. His final achivement was helping his club to return to Bundesliga after by finishing runners-up to champions Arminia Bielefeld last season.
“It was always my dream after such a great career, which I could not have imagined, to give something back to Stuttgart,” Gomez said.
“I’m extremely grateful to VfB and it is nice that I can say goodbye with this great success. It was my last mission.”
Gomez made a professional debut with Stuttgart in 2004 and helped the club won the Bundesliga title in 2006-2007 and was named German Footballer of The Year.
He was also part of the German national team that finished as runners up in Euro 2008 and third placed in FIFA World Cup 2010.
After 121 appearances with Stuttgart, he joined Bayern Munich for €30 million.
It was at Bayern that Gomez established himself as one of the world best striker as he helped his club to win two Bundesliga titles, two DFB-Pokal titles, two DFL-Supercup titles and UEFA Champions League title in 2013.
He joined Serie A club, Fiorentina in summer 2013, loaned to Besiktas in 2015 and won a league title before he returned to Germany and joined Wolfsburg in 2016 and Stuttgart in 2018.
He scored 31 goals in 78 matches for the national team but missed out on Germany 2014 World Cup success due to injury.