Born in the German city of Hamburg to an Austrian father and German mother, Martin Harnik ultimately decided his loyalties lay with his father in representing Austria at international level, even though he had never actually lived in the country. As fate would have it, the young forward will certainly have mixed emotions as the two countries (Austria and Germany) face each other in the group stages of the Euro 2008 finals.

Harnik represented Austria at both the Under19 and Under21 levels before his senior international debut, which came in August 2007 against the Czech Republic.  And what an amazing personal debut it was for him; coming on in the 74th minute and scoring in the 78th minute to equalise and secure a 1-1 draw in Vienna.

That wasn’t the end of it though in a dream week for the player. Three days after his heroics against the Czech Republic, he followed up with a repeat performance in his German Bundesliga debut for Werder Bremen versus Nuremburg; coming on in the 61st minute and scoring the only goal of the game in the 69^th minute.

Subsequently though, he was to find that his appearances for Werder Bremen were to be few and far between, with one notable exception when he came on as a substitute against Italian side Lazio in the Champions League. During his time at Bremen he has operated at full back and midfield as well as in attack.