Roland Gunther Linz (born 9 August 1981) is an Austrian former 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 ...
who played as a
forward.
He spent most of his extensive professional career with
Austria Wien
Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...
, winning five major titles including three
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. The ...
championships. He also competed in France, Portugal, Turkey and Thailand.
Linz earned 39
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...
for
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, appearing for the nation at
Euro 2008.
Club career
Early career and Germany
Born in
Leoben,
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
, Linz started in the youth teams of local
DSV Leoben. Aged 15, he left for Germany to finish his football development on
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
with
TSV 1860 München
A tab-separated values (TSV) file is a simple text format for storing data in a tabular structure, e.g., a database table or spreadsheet data, and a way of exchanging information between databases. Each record in the table is one line of the text ...
.
Two years later, Linz returned to Austria to rejoin his hometown club, this time being featured in the professional squad. Over the two following seasons, he scored 27 goals in 53 games combined, and his good form in the
second division attracted the attention of bigger sides in the country, which led to him signing with
FK Austria Wien
Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria ( German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the ...
.
Linz had his first taste of success at his new team, winning both the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...
and
cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, c ...
in the
2002–03 campaign. One year later, he moved on loan to