He is one of the most enigmatic footballers in the world, dividing opinion like few others, especially among Arsenal fans.
On and off the pitch, his highs and lows generate endless debate, praise and criticism. In recent months, he has been a peripheral figure for his club, attacked by thugs near his home and increasingly divorced from Germany, the team he helped to win the World Cup in 2014.
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Until today, he has also kept his counsel, declining to speak publicly about any of those issues. But in an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Mesut Ozil breaks his silence.
During a wide-ranging conversation, the 31-year-old discusses:
- His intention to stay at Arsenal until “at least” the summer of 2021
- Why he believes condemnation of his performances is “ridiculous”
- The moped attack that left his wife feeling “scared” in their own home
- How “racist abuse” forced him to quit the Germany national team
- A feeling of “respect” that led to his association with Turkey’s president
Ozil joined Arsenal from Real Madrid in 2013 and signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract worth £350,000 per week in January 2018.
But the end of that season saw the departure of Arsene Wenger, the manager who signed Ozil, and since then his role has diminished.
Ozil has featured in just two of Arsenal’s 11 games so far this season and last season became a peripheral figure away from home in particular, playing just 600 minutes in the league. Fifteen players were used more.
Only Christian Eriksen, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne have made more assists in the league since Ozil joined Arsenal — his talent is doubtless. However, the playmaker has not been as effective in recent seasons (his chances created per 90 minutes for Arsenal was 4.31 at his peak in 2015-16 and just 1.27 this season) and he is being heavily linked with a January move away from the club amid indications that he does not figure in head coach Unai Emery’s plans. Despite this, he was still named as one of Emery’s five captains.
But when asked if he is heading for the exit, Ozil replies firmly: “No. I have a contract until the summer of 2021 and I will be staying until then.
“When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career. I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same.
“You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away and I’m not going to. I’m here until at least 2021.
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“I said that Arsene Wenger was a big factor in me joining Arsenal — and he was — but ultimately I signed for the club. Even when Arsene announced he was leaving, I wanted to stay because I love playing for Arsenal and that’s why I’ve been here for six years.
“When I moved from Real Madrid, it was a really tough time for Arsenal. But I always believed in what we could do and together we delivered. More recently things have been difficult and a lot has changed. But I’m proud to be an Arsenal player, a fan and I’m happy here. Whenever people see me in the street I always say, ‘This is my home’. I’m going nowhere.”
Ozil has been left out of Arsenal’s last three matchday squads and after one of them — the Europa League win against Standard Leige on 3 October — Emery revealed that others “deserve it more” than the World Cup winner.
A week later, the club’s head of football Raul Sanllehi suggested Ozil needed to apply more effort in training and “contribute 24-7” to earn a recall.
“All I know is what has already been said,” Ozil concedes. “It’s disappointing, of course. But as a professional footballer, I have to respect the decision of the coach. Not being involved, watching from home, makes me feel helpless.
“I want to be part of the side, I want to support my team-mates to succeed. I’m not training all the time just for the sake of it, I’m ready to play. This should not be about me or the coach, only the club. I have to give everything, be fit and focused, and I’m training hard to be ready.
“Pre-season went very well and although things were disrupted by the [moped] attack, since then I’ve been fully available and when the coach has selected me I’ve been ready, played and always tried to give my best.
“I’ve trained at the same level my whole career but because I’ve not had minutes recently, I’m doing extra work with the fitness coach and in the gym to get even fitter than normal. I know what is needed and believe in myself.”
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Ozil’s mention of Emery is in reference to a reported breakdown in the pair’s relationship, but the player expresses no negative sentiment: “I’ve worked under some of the biggest coaches in the world — Arsene, Jose Mourinho, Joachim Low — and always I show respect. It’s the same for Unai.
“We might not see eye-to-eye on everything but that’s normal, it’s life and it’s the same with my family and friends. You have to accept it and go forward.”
What if Emery, also contracted until 2021, never selects Ozil again?
“I don’t think that will happen. I will play. I believe in myself to do what he asks of me and I want to help the club to reach our goals.”
Ozil has been the source of constant scrutiny, be it his performances since signing the new deal, his contribution in the so-called ‘big’ games, his body language on the field or his fitness record.
He describes the notion that he may have downed tools after putting pen to paper on such lucrative terms as “ridiculous” and “total rubbish”.
“If that was true, why did I work so hard and positively during pre-season this year? And why, after the World Cup last year, did I return from holiday early for the first time in my career to start training three days before I was expected back? I did it for the new coach, the team and the club. Maybe people don’t like that I have a good contract? I don’t know or care.”
What Ozil does care about is the impression that he both struggles against superior opposition and too often blames poor health for his absences.
“It always happens that an ex-player stands there on TV and criticises me,” he says. “Others just continue the theme and it gets in everyone’s heads.
“If we don’t do well in a ‘big’ game, it’s always my fault. If that’s true, how do you explain our results in the ‘big’ games when I wasn’t involved? There’s no real difference. I know people expect me to offer more, dictate play and make the difference — I do, too — but it’s not that straightforward.
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“I’m not the only player in the team and, don’t forget, some of our opponents are simply better than us. Also, what is a ‘big’ or ‘small’ game? In the Premier League, anyone can beat anyone. Look at Wolves and Norwich beating Man City, or Newcastle and West Ham beating Man United.
“So you can’t say my good performances only came in ‘small’ games because these games don’t really exist. The intensity is there in every match and often the ‘small’ teams raise their standard against the ‘big’ teams.
“I also get really frustrated when I miss a game through illness and people question if it is genuine. Yes, it happened a few times — usually in the winter — but what am I supposed to do? If you knew me, you would know it takes a lot for me to miss a game and I have never used sickness as an excuse. Actually the opposite. I played many games when I was ill or had injuries. Before the Champions League game against Bayern Munich [in March 2017], I was sick and Arsene told me I was not in the squad because of that. The next morning, the guys from Arsenal called me and said, ‘Listen, you have to come to the stadium, you have to be in the squad’. Despite my illness, I joined the squad and played the last 20 minutes.
“Most players don’t play when injured or sick — it influences your game, you can’t give everything — but I was always available unless it was impossible.”
Ozil is similarly robust in defending the demeanour — head bowed, shoulders slumped, arms flailing — he regularly exudes if something is not to his liking.
“It’s my personality,” he counters. “People want to change me but, since the day I started playing football, I was always like this. If a game is not going well or I play a bad ball, of course I get frustrated because I know it can be better. It’s the same when I come off the pitch looking angry. I’m a perfectionist and sometimes I want too much perfection.
“It doesn’t take me long to get over — I’m not going around the pitch or sat on the bench pissed off for the next five minutes or anything. It’s just in that moment and then we continue. I realise afterwards it’s not good to show this, but it’s instinctive, so I don’t plan it and it’s not easy to change.
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“This is me. I’m the same person at Arsenal as I was at Schalke, Werder Bremen, Real Madrid and the German national team. People may want me to change but I’ve been successful everywhere and I never will.”
Such an uncompromising, non-conformist mindset has become increasingly evident, not only in Ozil’s football career but his life outside the game, too. His decision to pose for photos with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the build-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia caused huge controversy.
Ozil was born in Germany — the country his grandparents emigrated to from Turkey — and earned 92 caps, won the World Cup and was voted their player of the year five times between 2011 and 2017.
Amid the fallout from that meeting with Erdogan and Germany’s shock opening-round elimination from last year’s tournament, Ozil announced his international retirement via an extraordinarily explosive statement in which he said he was ‘a German when we win, but an immigrant when we lose’. Talking about that period for the first time, Ozil appears to have no regrets.
“[Erdogan] is the current president of Turkey and I would show respect to that person, whoever it was,” argues the third-generation Turkish-German. “Although I was born and raised in Germany, Turkey is part of my heritage.
“If the German president or [Chancellor] Angela Merkel are in London and ask to see me, to speak to me, of course I would do that as well. It’s just about showing respect to the highest position of a country.”
Describing himself as “really happy” to have moved on from the national team, Ozil adds: “With time to reflect, I know it was the right decision. It was a very difficult period for me as I played nine years for Germany and was one of their most successful players. I won the World Cup and more, played a lot of games — a lot of them really good — and gave everything.
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“I don’t say people must love me but just show respect about what I’ve done for Germany. The team was always competitive but they wanted to play a more attractive style, all age groups using the ball better. A bit like Spain. My generation changed German football. It became more fun to watch.
“But after the photo, I felt disrespected and unprotected. I was receiving racist abuse — even from politicians and public figures — yet nobody from the national team came out at that time and said, ‘Hey, stop. This is our player, you can’t insult him like that’. Everyone just kept quiet and let it happen.
“It felt like I was expected to apologise for the meeting, admit I’d made a mistake and then everything would be fine; otherwise I was not welcome in the team and should leave. I would never do that. Racism has always been there, but people used this situation as an excuse to let it out. They are free to have a personal view, to dislike a photo I’ve taken. Just as I’m free to make a personal decision to have the photo taken. But what followed exposed their racism for everyone to see.
“There are major problems in Germany — just look at what happened in Halle last week, another anti-semitic attack. Unfortunately, racism is no longer only a right-wing issue in the country. It has shifted into the middle of society.”
Specifically citing the World Cup, Ozil elaborates: “When we were knocked out and I came off the pitch, German people were telling me, ‘Go back to your country’, ‘Fuck yourself’, ‘Turkish pig’ and stuff like that.
“Before the tournament there was a friendly in Leverkusen and when the ball came to Ilkay Gundogan [who was also photographed with Erdogan], most of the stadium was booing him. I heard them shouting, ‘Goat fucker’, ‘Fucking Turkish boy’ and other insults that I can’t repeat.
“Before the World Cup I was supposed to be the face of some commercial deals, but suddenly they cancelled everything and removed me from their campaigns. Some of my German charities dropped me as an ambassador and advised me to distance myself from the photo. But what upset me most was the reaction of the school I went to in Gelsenkirchen. I’ve always supported them and we decided to do a year-long programme together. At the end, I was going to attend a ceremony and meet all of the staff and children, many from immigrant backgrounds.
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“Everything was planned. But then the school director told my team I should not come because of the media attention and the rise of the right-wing AfD party in their city. I couldn’t believe it. My home town, my school. I gave them my hand but they didn’t give theirs back. I’ve never felt so unwelcome.
“After Russia, I went away to give myself space to make a clear decision. I talked to those I’m closest to. But in keeping with all of my decisions, I had to follow my heart and decided, ‘It’s time to go, time to move on’.
“I didn’t need to do any of this and things could have been easier for me if I hadn’t, but I’m strong enough to stand by my beliefs and decisions. I’m not an opportunist. No career chance or fame will change that. I still have strong links to Germany, I still have a marketing company there which means I employ people and pay millions of Euros in tax. I could have moved my interests elsewhere, but I wanted to give back and I continue to.
“I’m proud to still work with one charity, who provide operations for children worldwide, and they stood by me. But the national team chapter is over.”
A year on from that photograph, Ozil was back in the spotlight for different reasons when — with the 2019-20 season fast approaching — he, his wife Amine and Arsenal team-mate Sead Kolasinac fell victim to an attempted carjacking in London.
Mesut Ozil’s car got jumped, Kolasinac jumped out and backed the beef. #YaGunnersYa pic.twitter.com/CxsJeiCvxw
— James (@smhjaames) July 25, 2019
“I drove from my house to Sead’s,” Ozil recalls. “He was outside and we spoke. My wife was sitting next to me. Then these guys came. We were looking at each other for 10-15 seconds. We were thinking maybe they want to take a picture or something — that’s happened before. Then we noticed that they had a weapon and something was going wrong. They obviously saw the big car and because Sead had just handed me something, they must have noticed he was wearing an expensive watch.
“They told him directly, ‘Give us your watch!’. Sead’s reaction was really, really brave because he attacked one of the attackers. The second one was in front of my car on his moped so I couldn’t drive.
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“We were newly wed and I was scared about my wife. I was scared about Sead. I wasn’t thinking about myself. I was worried they were going to open my wife’s door and they tried, so I reached across her to keep it closed.
“I saw one chance to drive. If they got to my wife, something terrible might have happened to her. It was going so quickly that you can’t think properly. I drove a little bit forwards and backwards to try and get the moped away. I told Sead, “Jump in! Jump in!” and thankfully he did. The second guy tried again to get in. Sead closed the door and I made a U-turn. There was a construction site there and they took bricks and stones to throw at us.
“I started driving but they followed. I was driving very fast but they kept coming close on the moped. I tried to move the car, block them, escape, but each time they would be there. My wife was extremely scared.
“Nothing happened to us, that’s the most important thing. We were worried these guys had been targeting us, but the police said they found them and a few hours earlier, they tried to rob other people nearby in a similar way.”
Although all three escaped without physical harm, damage was done. “My wife wanted to get away immediately,” Ozil admits. “She didn’t feel safe. Even if I let our dogs into the garden and went out with them she would say, ‘Come in, come in, stay in the house!’ She was very concerned.
“Something like this has never happened to us before. She told me — and Sead’s wife told him — let’s go back to our families, to be safe and let everything calm down. It was a bad couple of weeks but never made me want to leave London permanently. Now, even for my wife, everything is OK.
“I returned to training and my football was fine, but my mind was always at home with my wife. She was alone in our house and you never know what happens. So I was thinking, ‘OK, just train and go back to your wife.’”
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That brings us back to the original topic and, ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Sheffield United on Monday night, Ozil’s hope that he can put these issues behind him and recapture the sort of form that underpins his stardom.
“I had some tough times when I was younger and that helps me in periods like this because I’m mentally so strong and can deal with it,” he concludes.
“I have the support of my family and friends, and also whenever I don’t play or things are not great, look at how the Arsenal fans react. They make me feel amazing. When I go out in the street, when I’m at the stadium, when I look on social media or in my post at home, the supporters tell me, ‘We’re all behind you’, ‘You’re one of us’, ‘Keep strong’, ‘You’ll get your chance’.
“I’m very thankful. It keeps me happy, focused and patient to wait for my chance. I remember in 2014 when I hurt my knee — the first bad injury of my career — the fans never stopped supporting me. Even the songs they wrote, I’ve not had that anywhere else and that backing is important to me.
“I have faith in myself and I know my quality, as do the club and my team-mates. This is the reason why, for nearly 14 years, I’ve been in football and at a high level. If and when I get the opportunity, I will show it again.”
(Photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
