Martin Harnik (born 10 June 1987) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for German fifth-tier club

TuS Dassendorf TuS Dassendorf is a German association football club from the municipality of Dassendorf, Schleswig-Holstein. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the tier five Oberliga Hamburg in 2013 and winning the league in each of its first f ...

. Born in Germany, he has represented the Austria national team. He plays as a forward or as a

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Family

Harnik was born in Hamburg in 1987, the youngest of three children who were raised in the Hamburg district of Kirchwerder. His father is from

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

in Austria, and his mother is from

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Club career

Early career

Harnik started playing football in 1992 at SC Vier- und Marschlande. In early 2006, he joined the second team of

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

, playing in the third tier

Regionalliga A (, plural ) is a regional league in numerous Sports governing body, sports governing bodies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, usually located in the upper or middle tiers of the sports leagues. The term is often associated with the Germa ...

. Due to a broken metatarsal bone, Harnik missed almost all of the first half of 2007. At the start of the 2007–08 season, the forward was promoted to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side of Werder Bremen, signing a contract until 2010. On 15 August 2007, the 20-year-old made his debut for the professional team against

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

, in the first leg of the third Champions League Qualification round (2–1). His Bundesliga debut came ten days later, in a game against 1. FC Nürnberg (1–0). Being fielded in the 61st minute, he scored the winning goal for his side in the 69th minute. On 24 August 2009, it was announced that Harnik was able to leave his club

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

as a free agent, and six days later was loaned out to

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

. After one season at the 2. Bundesliga side, in which he was Fortuna's topscorer, with the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

ers narrowly missing promotion to the Bundesliga, Harnik announced on 26 April 2010 that he would leave Düsseldorf.

VfB Stuttgart

In July 2010, Harnik moved to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

. Harnik began playing for Stuttgart as a ''joker'', but manager Bruno Labbadia brought him into the regular starting squad as the club was fighting relegation in the 2010–11 Bundesliga season. In the first fixture of his second season with the club, Harnik scored the second goal of a 3–0 home win over

Schalke Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a Professionalism in association football, professional sports club from the Gelsenkirchen-Schalke, Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, N ...

. Harnik propelled his side to victory with a brace against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

on 16 September 2011. In the 2011–12 season, Harnik was Stuttgart's top scorer with 17 goals and eight assists. On 6 January 2012, he extended his contract with VfB Stuttgart until June 2016. Harnik netted twice in the final of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

on 1 June 2013, but Stuttgart fell 3–2 to

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

and the Bavarians secured an unprecedented league, cup and European cup treble.

Hannover 96

In July 2016, Harnik joined

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

. He scored 21 goals in 33 appearances during the 2016–17 season. He scored 11 goals in 32 appearances during the 2017–18 season.

Werder Bremen

In May 2018,

announced Harnik would return to the club for the 2018–19 season. Media reported he signed a contract until 2021 and estimated the transfer fee paid to Hannover 96 at around €2 million. On 2 September 2019,

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

announced the signing of Harnik on a season-long loan deal. In October 2020, after Harnik's return from loan, he agreed the termination of his contract with Werder Bremen.

TuS Dassendorf

Harnik moved down to fifth-division

on 7 October 2020, German transfer deadline day. This was because he lived near the club and wanted to play on the same team as his future brother-in-law, Mattia Maggio.

International career

Harnik, who also was eligible for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, opted to play for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, although he has never lived there, after having been nominated for the youth national teams of the

ÖFB The Austrian Football Association (; ÖFB) is the governing body of Association football, football in Austria. It organises the football league, Austrian Bundesliga, the Austrian Cup and the Austria national football team, as well as its Austria w ...

, not those of the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

. His debut came in a match against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna on 22 August 2007 (1–1). After being on the pitch for just six minutes, he scored the equaliser in the 78th minute. He was called up to Austria's squad for the

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

. Harnik played in all three group games but the co-hosts were eliminated in the group stage. On 2 September 2011, Harnik scored against Germany in a 6–2 loss at the

Veltins-Arena Arena AufSchalke (), currently known as Veltins-Arena () for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof and pitch, football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for FC S ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

. The win meant that Harnik's nation of birth secured qualification to

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

. He represented the national team at 2016 UEFA Euro.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Austria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Harnik goal.''

Honours

Werder Bremen *

: 2008–09 *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

Runner-up: 2008–09 VfB Stuttgart *

Runner-up: 2012–13

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harnik, Martin 1987 births Living people Naturalised citizens of Austria Footballers from Hamburg Austrian people of German descent German people of Austrian descent Austrian men's footballers German men's footballers Men's association football forwards Austria men's youth international footballers 21st-century Austrian sportsmen Austria men's under-21 international footballers Austria men's international footballers Hannover 96 players VfB Stuttgart players SV Werder Bremen players SV Werder Bremen II players Fortuna Düsseldorf players Hamburger SV players TuS Dassendorf players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2016 players 21st-century German sportsmen