György Garics is a
HungarianHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-born
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n professional football defender. He currently plays in
Serie ASerie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
for
BolognaBologna Football Club 1909, known simply as Bologna, is an Italian Football League club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, formed in 1993. The club are nicknamed the rossoblù because of the red and blue striped shirts they wear. Red and Blue are the official colours of the town.During its history...
.
Football career
Although born in Hungary, Garics moved to
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
when he was 14 years old and started his football career in Austria with prominent side
Rapid ViennaThe Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...
in 2002; during his first season as a teenager he made two appearances.
By the 2004–05 season the young attacking wingback has become more of a prominent member in the first team and Rapid Vienna won the
Austrian BundesligaThe Austrian Football Bundesliga is the highest-ranking national league club competition in Austrian football. It is the competition which decides the Austrian national football champions, as well the country's entrants for the various European cups run by UEFA.The Austrian Bundesliga, which began...
, around this time he also became captain of the U21 national team of Austria.
Having made 81 appearances for Rapid Vienna and scored one goal, he was bought by Italian side
NapoliSocietà Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is a professional Italian football club based in Naples and founded in 1926. The club has spent most of its history in Serie A, where it currently plays its 2011–12 season....
for €500,000, making his debut against
TriestinaUnione Sportiva Triestina is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.It is in the season 2010-11 from Serie B, having returned there in 2002 after 11 seasons in Serie C and Serie D, the club was relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione.-History:The club was...
on 23 September 2006. Soon after, he achieved a call up on 6 October 2006 for the
Austrian national teamThe Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....
against
LiechtensteinThe Liechtenstein national football team is the national football team of Liechtenstein and is controlled by the Liechtenstein Football Association. The organisation is known as the Liechtensteiner Fussballverband in German. The team's first match was an unofficial match against Malta in Seoul, a...
and scored on his international debut.
He was also called up to the Euro 2008 squad and started Austria's third match against Germany in Vienna.
The case of Garics - who at the time was arguably the best Hungarian footballer - divided Hungarian public sentiment, as it is the first high profile case of a player choosing a national team other than Hungary, and is also considered a failure on the part of the Hungarian Football Feredration to consider to select him in time for the national team.
Garics signed for
AtalantaAtalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly known as just Atalanta, Atalanta Bergamo or the abbreviation Atalanta BC, is an Italian football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy.They are nicknamed the Nerazzurri and the orobici...
from
NapoliSocietà Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is a professional Italian football club based in Naples and founded in 1926. The club has spent most of its history in Serie A, where it currently plays its 2011–12 season....
in a co-ownership deal in early July 2008, for €1.5 million. Atalanta bought full ownership of the player for €1 million on 26 June 2009.
After Atalanta were relegated from Serie A, Garics was sold outright to
BolognaBologna Football Club 1909, known simply as Bologna, is an Italian Football League club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, formed in 1993. The club are nicknamed the rossoblù because of the red and blue striped shirts they wear. Red and Blue are the official colours of the town.During its history...
on 9 August 2010, for €3 million. Garics was seriously injured in 2011, and had to miss most of the spring season at Bologna.
External links
Atalanta B.C. Official Player Profile