Thursday 25 / April / 2024
“We’ve got Ozil, Mesut Ozil” is a popular chant sung by Arsenal fans from the terraces whenever their favourite German thrives in the club’s red and white colours — that is, now that cult hero Per Mertesacker has retired.
Until just a couple of days ago, the German national team too had the full services of Mesut Ozil. His creative vision, ability to spot scoring opportunities that others couldn’t, and laser-precision passes were talents that, simply put, no other player could replicate.
Ozil was often made a scapegoat for Germany’s appalling performance at this year’s FIFA World Cup, where he was castigated for being lazy, not working hard enough, and refusing to help out his teammates. Yet no one did more for the national team than Ozil. We live in a world where we increasingly judge people on the basis of what we see, despite the oft-spoken advice to never judge a book by its cover.
The scapegoating of Ozil — the son of Turkish immigrants to Germany, who won the Bambi Award in 2010 for successful integration into German society — is not new, but reached new levels after he and fellow German-Turk Ilkay Gundogan posed for pictures with Turkey’s strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While little was made of it at the time, critics of Ozil used this picture in the wake of Germany’s World Cup elimination to bash his poor performances, claiming he wasn’t “German enough” to give it his all for his country, with politicians using this picture to push their own agendas. Fed up with the shoddy treatment by the game’s administrators, Ozil has since decided to retire from representing his country in the future.
The man who powered Germany to the World Cup just four years ago and won three trophies with Real Madrid, for whom he was the heartbeat of the team in midfield, four with Arsenal, as well as five German national team player of the year awards, was suddenly deemed to be not German enough. Much of the maelstrom associated with this has to do with the outlook of current German Football Federation (DFB, or Deutscher Fussball Bund) President Reinhard Grundel, who once claimed “multiculturalism in reality is a myth and a lifelong lie.”
“Criticising and abusing me because of family ancestry is a disgraceful line to cross, and using discrimination as a tool for political propaganda is something that should immediately result in the resignation of these disrespectful individuals,” said Ozil in a now widely-read 2,000-word statement released online. These people have used my picture with President Erdogan as an opportunity to express their hidden agendas and this is dangerous for society.
“The treatment I have received from the DFB and many others makes me no longer want to wear the German national team shirt,” he added. “I feel unwanted and think that what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten. People with discriminative backgrounds should not be allowed to work in the largest football federation in the world that has many players from dual-heritage families.”
“I am German when I win, but an immigrant when I lose,” said Ozil, who has been fully backed by national team manager Joachim Low and first team manager Oliver Bierhoff. “My friends Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose are never referred to as German-Polish, so why I am German-Turkish?”
According to stats website Opta, which is used by sports organisations and leagues across the world, Ozil created 5.5 chances for every 90 minutes played at the World Cup, more than any other player at the tournament. Against the Nationalmannschaft’s final opponents, South Korea, Ozil created an amazing seven goal-scoring opportunities, according to stats site WhoScored, which is among the most common references used by sports scientists and analysts.
**media[908217]**
In fact, although the media has often stereotyped Ozil as lazy, he is, in fact, the opposite. Case in point: Ozil was required to take time off after the World Cup to recover from the toll of last season’s Premier League and the summer tournament, but instead he cut short his holiday and re-joined new Arsenal manager Unai Emery’s squad early, in a bid to boost his fitness and help his club from the get-go.
Ozil created 74 chances in last season’s Premier League, a stat that ranks him among the league’s very best: Chelsea’s Eden Hazard made 77 and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne clocked up 104 chances, but Liverpool playmaker Roberto Firmino could only manage 56, while Juan Mata of Manchester United only created 50 chances.
It is often said that you only know the value of something once it is gone. Germany’s loss is Arsenal’s gain, and this down-time Ozil will now enjoy during international breaks means he will be ready to serve the cannon with pride.
But Arsenal fans in the Sultanate have backed the 29-year-old. “So much for being weak,” said Arsenal supporter Jalal Al Amri. “Pulled no punches, said things as they were. Ousted all the incompetent people and walked away with his pride.” “As much as I try to deny it, sports and politics are intertwined,” added Khalfan Al Ajmi. “The sport of football primarily is a means of catharsis from an otherwise mad world, and I try my best to avoid the politics that comes along with football.” Kristofer Chalmers, however, said it best. “A sad day indeed, when political agenda ruins everything that is good.”
— [email protected]
