Mario Haas (born 16 September 1974) 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. Apart from two short foreign engagements in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and Japan, he played most of his career with

SK Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austria ...

. Haas also made 43 appearances for the

Austria national football team The Austria national football team (german: Österreichische Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Austria in men's international football competition and it is controlled by the Austrian Football Association (German: Österreichischer Fußbal ...

, including at the 1998 World Cup 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 s ...

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 shoot ...

and the three Austrian Cup victories in 1996, 1997 and 1999. Together with

Ivica Vastić Ivica Vastić (; born 29 September 1969) is an Austrian retired professional footballer, who played as a midfielder and as a striker, and head coach of Austria Wien U18. He played, amongst others for FK Austria Wien, SK Sturm Graz and LASK a ...

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 brought him to JEF United in the J1 League in Japan. He won the Japanese Cup 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 Kapfenberger SV is an Austrian association football club from Kapfenberg. They won the 2007–08 Austrian Football First League and advanced to the Austrian Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1919 as ''Kapfenberger SC''. The club was renamed ...

on February 12, 2011, marking his 412th appearance for SK Sturm Graz in 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 footba ...

and making him the team's sole record holder ahead of

Günther Neukirchner Günther Neukirchner (born December 2, 1971) is a former Austrian Association football, football player in the position of a Defender (association football), defender. He spent the greatest part of his active career with the traditional Styrian c ...

. 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 Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

(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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and was a participant at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He earned 43 caps, scoring seven goals. His last international was a May 2007 friendly match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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: 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. ...

* Austrian Cup: 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 The is a Japanese football (soccer) competition organized by J.League. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since its inception in 1992. It is also known as the or (Levain is one of Y ...

: 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