Mario Haas (born 16 September 1974) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Apart from two short foreign engagements in France and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, he played most of his career with SK Sturm Graz. Haas also made 43 appearances for the Austria national football team, including at the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

in France.

Career

Club career

Mario Haas was active in SK Sturm Graz's youth section for ten years before playing his first game for the club's professionals in the spring of 1993. In the following years he played a major role in the two league titles in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and the three

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

victories in 1996, 1997 and 1999. Together with Ivica Vastić and Hannes Reinmayr he formed the so-called "magic triangle" of Sturm Graz during this successful period. In the summer of 1999, he decided to make his first move abroad, moving to France to join Racing Strasbourg. However, he was unable to establish himself there and therefore returned to his home club in the spring of 2001. During the winter break of the 2004/05 season, his ex-coach

Ivica Osim Ivan Osim (6 May 1941 – 1 May 2022), best known as Ivica Osim, was a Bosnian professional footballer and football manager. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football managers of all time and as one of the most influential foo ...

brought him to

JEF United , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club that plays in the J2 League. On 1 February 2005, the club changed its name from ''JEF United Ichihara'' to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba as ...

in the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

in Japan. He won the

Japanese Cup The cup is a cooking measure of volume, commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. In the US, it is traditionally equal to . Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups may be used ...

with the club in both 2005 (the club's first ever trophy) and 2006. From the spring of 2007, Mario Haas played again for his regular club Sturm Graz, with whom he triumphed in the Austrian Cup for the fourth time in 2010. He was substituted in the match against Kapfenberger SV on February 12, 2011, marking his 412th appearance for SK Sturm Graz in the Bundesliga and making him the team's sole record holder ahead of Günther Neukirchner. At the end of the 2010/11 season, Haas became Austrian football champion with Sturm for the third time. Thus, Mario Haas was involved in all three league titles and four of five cup victories of Sturm Graz. On December 1, 2012, Mario Haas ended his active career at the age of 38 during the match Sturm Graz vs. Wiener Neustadt (3:1). Today he runs his own football camps. He was coach of FC Bad Radkersburg, after the termination of his contract he became coach of USV Mettersdorf, but this contract was terminated after 5 defeats in a row. At the general assembly of SK Sturm Graz on January 18, 2016, he was honored as honorary captain together with Günther Neukirchner and Andy Pichler.

National team

Haas made his debut for the Austria national team in an April 1998 friendly match against the United States and was a participant at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. He earned 43 caps, scoring seven goals. His last international was a May 2007 friendly match against Scotland. He was asked to play in Austria's squad in a friendly match against Turkey in November 2008, by Austria's coach Karel Brückner, but refused, saying that he wanted to concentrate on his job at Sturm Graz.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sturm Graz *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

: 1997–98, 1998–99,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2009–10 * Austrian Supercup: 1996, 1997 *Top scorer: 1995, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 *Record player with 451 appearances JEF United Chiba * J.League Cup: 2005, 2006

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Mario 1974 births Living people Footballers from Graz Austrian footballers Association football forwards Austria international footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players SK Sturm Graz players RC Strasbourg Alsace players JEF United Chiba players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players J1 League players Austrian expatriate footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in France Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Japan