Zoltan Gera is a professional football player, who was born on April 22, 1979 in Pécs, Hungary. He is married and has a daughter, Hanna, who was born in March 2008.
Zoltan Gera began his international football career with Hungary national football team on February 13, 2002 in a match against Switzerland. On October 16, 2002, he netted his first international goal against San Marino and went on to make a hat-trick in the same match. Zoltan Gera was a part of the national team that had a 3-1 victory against Latvia on June 7, 2003 in a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2004 qualifying match. In 2004, he was made as the captain of the Hungary national team. As of September 2008, he has scored 16 international goals in his 55 appearances for the Hungary national team.
He developed his football skills while playing with Hungarian youth clubs like the Pécsi B?rgyár, Pécsi Zsolnay and Pécsi Kinizsi between 1993 and 1996. After representing the Harkány club during the 1996-97 season and the Pécsi Mecsek Football Club from 1997 to 2000, he moved to the Ferencváros Torna Club in 2000. Being a talented midfielder, Zoltan Gera has a reputation for balancing the ball and passing it quickly and precisely to his team players. With him in the squad, the Ferencváros Torna Club won the Hungarian League in both 2001 and 2004. Zoltan Gera contributed to the club’s victory in bagging the Hungarian Cup for two consecutive years, 2003 and 2004. His impressive performances helped the Ferencváros Torna Club to secure the 2004 Hungarian Super Cup. Having made 32 goals in 115 appearances with Ferencváros, he moved to the West Bromwich Albion F.C. in July 2004.
Zoltan Gera played his first Premiership match as a substitute against the Blackburn Rovers F.C. on August 14, 2004. His six league goals in 38 matches of his first season with the West Bromwich Albion team saved the club from relegation. On December 15, 2007 his netting of 2 goals and assisting another, helped his team win 4-2 against the Charlton Athletic club. After playing 135 matches for the West Bromwich Albion club, he signed a 3-year contract with the Fulham F.C. in June 2008.
For his amazing performances, Zoltan Gera was named Player of the Year in Hungary (2002) and was considered the Best Goalscorer and Best Player of the Hungarian Inside Football Championship with the Ferencváros club in 2003. The same year, he was voted to receive the Tibor Simon Prize by his fans. The Hungarian weekly magazine, 100% Fradi, named Zoltan Gera in the Ferencváros Team of the Century in 2004. He became the Hungarian Footballer of the Year for 2 consecutive years, 2004 and 2005, and an English website, squarefootball.net, rated him as the Best Player of West Brom in 2005. The Guardian, a British newspaper, named him the Championship Footballer of the Year (2007-08) for his valuable contributions to the West Bromwich Albion F.C.
Zoltan Gera appeared in an advertisement for Pepsi in 2005, which featured famous players like Thierry Henry, David Beckham and others, representing the 2006 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup.
