Roland Linz

**Roland Gunther Linz** (born 9 August 1981) is an Austrian former professional footballer. He  played as a forward. He played mainly for Austria Wien and the Austrian national football team.

Linz earned 39 caps for Austria, appearing for the nation at Euro 2008.

## Club career

Roland Linz began his career as a junior player at DSV Leoben. In 1997 he moved to Germany for two years to the youth team of TSV 1860 Munich. He then returned to his home club in Leoben. At the age of 19 he became his club's top scorer in the second-class first division. After scoring 21 goals in the 2000/01 season he signed for FK Austria Wien in the Bundesliga. He scored 8 goals in his first year in the Bundesliga.  In the 2002/03 season he won the championship and the ÖFB Cup with the Austria. He was used less and less by manager Christoph Daum and from the sixth round onwards had no more match over the full distance.

Linz was loaned to VfB Admira Wacker Mödling in the 2003/04 season. Then he was loaned to OGC Nizza. He returned to Austria in winter 2005, where he worked for SK Sturm Graz for the rest of the season. In the 2005/06 season, Linz played again as a striker for Wiener Austria, became Austria's top scorer and won the championship title and ÖFB Cup with the club.

2007 the went to  Boavista Porto in the Portuguese first division, where he scored ten goals in his first season. In August 2007 there he joined Sporting Braga. On January 30, 2009 he went on loan to the Swiss Grasshopper Club Zurich until the end of the 2008/09 season,[2] then to Gaziantepspor in Turkey. However, the contract was dissolved in January 2010.[3] On February 1, 2010, Linz signed a six-month contract with an option for three more years at FK Austria Wien. After he was only used very rarely at FK in 2012, the contract was dissolved. He moved to Thai club Muangthong United on January 10, 2013. In January 2014 Linz moved back to the Portuguese league to Belenenses Lisbon, where the contract ended on June 30, 2014.

## International career

Linz made his debut for Austria in a friendly match with Slovakia, a 2–0 win in Graz on 27 March 2002. He remained a regular until September 2007. He made a public outburst against Austrian Football Association president Friedrich Stickler. For the next 18 months, he was not called in the team.

Linz returned to the national side in time for UEFA Euro 2008 . He played  two of Austria's matches during the tournament . He scored no goals.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National cup|colspan="2"|League cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|DSV Leoben|1999–2000|Austrian First League|0|0|2|0|—|—|2|0||||
|2000–01|12|3|1|0|—|—|13|3||||||
|Austria Wien|2001–02|Austrian Bundesliga|29|8|3|3|—|—|32|11||||
|2002–03|21|3|3|0|—|1|0|25|3|||||
|Admira Mödling|2003–04|Austrian Bundesliga|31|15|3|3|—|—|34|18||||
|Nice|2004–05|Ligue 1|15|0|0|0|1|0|1|0|17|0||
|Sturm Graz|2004–05|Austrian Bundesliga|13|4|0|0|—|0|0|13|4|||
|Austria Wien|2005–06|Austrian Bundesliga|31|15|1|0|—|4|3|36|18|||
|Boavista|2006–07|Primeira Liga|28|10|4|1|—|—|32|11||||
|2007–08|0|0|0|0|1|0|—|1|0|||||
|Braga|2007–08|Primeira Liga|27|11|4|0|0|0|8|5|39|16||
|2008–09|6|0|3|1|0|0|6|3|15|4||||
|Grasshoppers (loan)|2008–09|Swiss Super League|16|7|1|0|—|—|17|7||||
|Gaziantepspor|2009–10|Süper Lig|5|0|0|0|—|—|5|0||||
|Austria Wien|2009–10|Austrian Bundesliga|15|6|1|0|—|—|16|6||||
|2010–11|36|21|4|2|—|6|3|46|26|||||
|2011–12|28|12|3|2|—|10|2|41|16|||||
|2012–13|7|1|2|2|—|—|9|3||||||
|Muangthong United|2013|Thai League T1|4|1|0|0|—|6|0|10|1|||
|Belenenses|2013–14|Primeira Liga|3|0|0|0|2|0|—|5|0|||

## International statistics

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="8"|Austria|2002|4|1|
|2003|1|0|||
|2004|4|0|||
|2005|4|2|||
|2006|7|3|||
|2007|8|0|||
|2008|7|2|||
|2010|4|0|||

- _Scores and results list Austria's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Linz goal._

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|3 September 2005|Stadion Slaski,  Chorzow, Poland||1-2|2-3|2006 FIFA World Cup qualification||||||||
|2|2-3|||||||||||||
|3|2 September 2006|Stade de Geneve,  Geneva,  Switzerland||1-1|2-2|Friendly match||||||||
|4|2-2|||||||||||||
|5|11 October 2006|Tivoli ,  Innsbruck,  Austria||1-0|2-1|Friendly match||||||||
|7|30 May 2008|Liebenauer Stadium,  Graz,  Austria||2-0|5-1|Friendly match||||||||
|8|3-1|||||||||||||

## Honours

**Austria Wien**
- Austrian Bundesliga: 2003, 2006, 2013
- Austrian Cup: 2003, 2006

**Individual**
- Austrian Bundesliga top scorer: 2006, 2011

## Other websites

- Austria Wien archives
- National team data

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Roland Linz
- **image**: Roland Linz.JPG
- **upright**: 0.9
- **caption**: Linz playing with FK Austria Wien, Austria Wien in 2011
- **fullname**: Roland Gunther Linz
- **birth place**: Leoben, Austria
- **height**: 1.85 m
- **position**: Forward (association football), Forward
- **youthyears1**: 1995–1997
- **youthclubs1**: DSV Leoben
- **youthyears2**: 1997–1999
- **youthclubs2**: TSV 1860 Munich, 1860 Munich
- **years1**: 1999–2001
- **clubs1**: DSV Leoben
- **caps1**: 53
- **goals1**: 27
- **years2**: 2001–2006
- **clubs2**: FK Austria Wien, Austria Wien
- **caps2**: 81
- **goals2**: 26
- **years3**: 2003–2004
- **clubs3**: → VfB Admira Wacker Mödling, Admira Mödling (loan)
- **caps3**: 31
- **goals3**: 15
- **years4**: 2004
- **clubs4**: → OGC Nice, Nice (loan)
- **caps4**: 15
- **goals4**: 0
- **years5**: 2005
- **clubs5**: → SK Sturm Graz, Sturm Graz (loan)
- **caps5**: 13
- **goals5**: 4
- **years6**: 2006–2007
- **clubs6**: Boavista F.C., Boavista
- **caps6**: 28
- **goals6**: 10
- **years7**: 2007–2009
- **clubs7**: S.C. Braga, Braga
- **caps7**: 33
- **goals7**: 11
- **years8**: 2009
- **clubs8**: → Grasshopper Club Zürich, Grasshoppers (loan)
- **caps8**: 16
- **goals8**: 7
- **years9**: 2009–2010
- **clubs9**: Gaziantepspor
- **caps9**: 5
- **goals9**: 0
- **years10**: 2010–2013
- **clubs10**: FK Austria Wien, Austria Wien
- **caps10**: 86
- **goals10**: 40
- **years11**: 2013–2014
- **clubs11**: Muangthong United F.C., Muangthong United
- **caps11**: 4
- **goals11**: 1
- **years12**: 2014
- **clubs12**: C.F. Os Belenenses, Belenenses
- **caps12**: 3
- **goals12**: 0
- **totalcaps**: 368
- **totalgoals**: 141
- **nationalyears1**: 2002–2010
- **nationalteam1**: Austria national football team, Austria
- **nationalcaps1**: 39
- **nationalgoals1**: 8