Mario Gomez, former German national team striker who played for VfB Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga Golden Boot Award for 2010-11 season, announced his retirement after scoring in his last game for The Swabians on Sunday.

"I'm very grateful for the time I had at Stuttgart. It was always my biggest dream to give something back and to end my career, that I couldn't have imagined, here," said Gomez.

Despite the 3-1 loss to SV Darmstadt 98, Stuttgart has already booked their spot in Bundesliga next season via promotion. Gomez, who turns 35  in July, stayed in good shape. Having started 15 of the 23 games he played this season, he scored seven goals and one assists for Stuttgart.

Gomez joined Stuttgart's youth development system in 2001 and reached his individual peak with the club. In the 2006-07 season, he helped Stuttgart win the Bundesliga Championship while he was named the German Footballer of the Year. Two years later, he joined Bayern Munich which paid 30 million euros (about 33.7 million U.S. dollars) to bring him to Allianz Arena.

Gomez reached his career peak in the four seasons in Bayern, where he won two Bundesliga championships, two DFB-Pokal titles, one DFL-Supercup championship and one UEFA Champions League title.

In spite of being 1.89 meters tall, Gomez was never known for header. His favorite way of scoring was to receive or dribble the ball towards the penalty area and finish a strong, fast and long shot. During his time in Bayern, Gomez also learned how to deal with the ball as a pillar and improved his defense.

Gomez has scored 170 goals in Bundesliga games, the 11th most in history. He also hit 31 goals in 78 games on behalf of the German national team.