Roland Linz

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Roland Linz (born August 9, 1981 in Leoben, Styria) is an Austrian football forward who currently plays for Sporting Braga in the Portuguese SuperLiga.

He started out in the youth teams of local club DSV Leoben. Aged 16 he left for Germany to join the youth team of 1860 München, one of the two big teams located in Bavaria's capital Munich (the other one being Bayern München). Two years later Linz returned to Austria to rejoin his home team DSV Leoben, this time being featured in the professional squad, to be recruited by one of the country's major football teams, Viennese club Austria Wien, after 2 more years. It was also in Austria's capital where the young striker had his first big successes, winning both the championship and the Austrian Cup in 2003, as well as making his debut in the Austrian national team in 2002. For the 2004/05 season Linz was transferred on loan to Austrian Bundesliga side Admira Wacker, located in the southern outskirts of Vienna, just a few kilometres away from his previous club. Aged 23 he left Austria for the second time in 2004, being lent to french club OGC Nice. However he failed to establish himself in France and returned to Austria after six months already, to play for Sturm Graz for the rest of the season. After half a year in Styria's capital, Linz was back in Vienna for his second and final season with Austria Wien, again being remarkably successful winning both the Austrian championship and cup in 2006, topping it off with earning himself the league's top scorer crown this time.

These successes, as well as several solid appearances in the national team, and a finished contract in Vienna again led to increasing foreign interest in Austria's probably highest rated striker of the present day.

In the summer of 2006 it was announced that Linz would search his fortune in Portugal in the upcoming season, thus he was signed by Boavista FC on a three years contract, but after one season and 10 goals (making him one of the top 5 goalscorers of the league), he was bought by Sporting Braga for the 2007/08 season, transferring inside of the portuguese league and moving away just 50 km from Porto.

In the UEFA Cup of 2007/2008 season, Linz scored a total of 5 goals before seeing his side eliminated against German giants SV Werder Bremen where he had been in the UEFA.COM Dream team on several actions scoring against the likes of Bayern Munich, Aris FC and Red Star Belgrade all vital games with enabled Braga to more points as they moved to the next round he also made dreeam team alongside players like Luca Toni and Andrei Arshavin.

At the current moment it is likely that Linz will be a main player of the Austrian national side for the 2008 European football championship in his home country.

[edit] Honours

• Austrian Championship title with Austria Wien 2002/03 and 2005/06
• Austrian Cup winner 2002/03 and 2005/06
• Austrian league top goalscorer 2005/06

[edit] Official Homepage

www.rolandlinz.net.tf - Official Homepage in german and english

v • d • e Austria squad - UEFA Euro 2008 1 Manninger • 2 Standfest • 3 Stranzl • 4 Pogatetz • 5 Fuchs • 6 Aufhauser • 7 Vastić • 8 Leitgeb • 9 Linz • 10 Ivanschitz • 11 Korkmaz • 12 Gërçaliu • 13 Katzer • 14 Garics • 15 Prödl • 16 Patocka • 17 Hiden • 18 Kienast • 19 Säumel • 20 Harnik • 21 Macho • 22 Hoffer • 23 Özcan • Coach: Hickersberger

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