Mario González Gutiérrez (; born 25 February 1996) is a Spanish 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 le ...

who plays for

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

club

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

, on loan from

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

. Mainly 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 ...

, he can also play as a winger.

Club career

Villarreal

Born in

Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja Villarcayo de Merindad de Castilla la Vieja () is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating informat ...

Province of Burgos The Province of Burgos is a province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia, Cantabria, Vizcaya, Álava, La Rioja, Soria, Segovia, and Valladolid. ...

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

, González joined

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, th ...

's youth system in 2012. On 30 August 2014 he made his senior debut for the C team, starting in a 1–3 home loss against

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''No ...

in the

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

. González scored his first senior goal on 5 October 2014, the third in a 4–0 home victory over

FC Jove Español San Vicente Fútbol Club Jove Español San Vicente, commonly known as Jove Español, is a Spanish professional football team based in San Vicente del Raspeig, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 2004 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Ciudad Deporti ...

. He added a brace against

Orihuela CF Orihuela Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Orihuela, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1993 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 3, holding home games at '' Estadio Municipal Los Arcos'', with a capacity of 7,000 se ...

on 14 December, two more against Benigànim and

Ontinyent CF Ontinyent Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Ontinyent, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 1947 it held home games at ''Estadio El Clariano'', with a capacity of 5,000 seats. On 28 March 2019, due to economic pr ...

in the following season, and a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 6–1 rout of

CD Acero Club Deportivo Acero ('Steel Sporting Club' in Spanish) is a Spanish football team based in Puerto de Sagunto (an urban nucleus in Sagunto), in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1919 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 6, hold ...

on 28 November 2015. González made his first-team debut on 17 August 2016, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Rafael Santos Borré Rafael Santos Borré Maury (born 15 September 1995) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Colombia national team. Succeeding his early career with Deportivo Cali, Borré ...

in a 1–2 home loss to

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Fre ...

in the

play-off round The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. His first match in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

was three days later, when he replaced

Alexandre Pato Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva (; born 2 September 1989), commonly known as Alexandre Pato () or just Pato, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker. Pato began his career as a youth player for Internacional in 2000, maki ...

in the 1–1 draw at

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

. In July 2019, González signed a one-year deal with French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

club Clermont Foot. A year later, after exercising an option in his contract, he returned to Villarreal on a two-year deal. González went on loan to Portugal's

C.D. Tondela Clube Desportivo de Tondela () is a Portuguese professional football club that plays in Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. They are based in the town of Tondela, located in Viseu District, and play in the Estádio João Cardoso ...

in the summer of 2020. He scored a career-best 15 times during his spell (ranking fourth in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

individual charts for the campaign), including three in 12 minutes in a 3–2 away win against

Moreirense FC Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

Braga

On 1 July 2021, González joined

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

of the same country and league on a four-year contract, for a reported €1.5 million. The following 31 January, he returned to his home country after agreeing to a six-month loan with

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

. González was loaned to

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

side

Oud-Heverlee Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven (), also called OH Leuven or OHL, is a Belgian football club from the city of Leuven. It was created in 2002 from the merger of three clubs, '' F.C. Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee'', whose registration number it inherited, '' ...

for

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, with an option to buy. Although he scored 15 goals in 24 appearances in all competitions, the clause was not exercised and he returned to the

Estádio Municipal de Braga The Municipal Stadium of Braga ( pt, Estádio Municipal de Braga) is an all-seater football stadium located in Braga, Portugal, and the current home of Sporting Clube de Braga. It has a capacity of 30,286 spectators, making it the seventh larges ...

Los Angeles FC

On 22 July 2023, Braga sold González to

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

for a reported fee of €2.3 million.

Loan to Sporting Gijón

On 17 January 2024, Los Angeles FC sent González on loan to

club

Sporting Gijón Sporting may refer to: *Sport, recreational games and play *Sporting (neighborhood), in Alexandria, Egypt Sports clubs *AC Sporting, a football club from Beirut, Lebanon *Alexandria Sporting Club, a sports club from Alexandria, Egypt *Real Sportin ...

until the end of the 2023–24 season.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

Forward of the Month: April 2021

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Mario 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Burgos Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Castile and León Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Villarreal CF C players Villarreal CF B players Villarreal CF players CD Tenerife players Sporting de Gijón players Ligue 2 players Clermont Foot players Primeira Liga players C.D. Tondela players S.C. Braga players Belgian Pro League players Oud-Heverlee Leuven players Major League Soccer players Los Angeles FC players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States