So listen to this, at just 24 years of age, Ozil had already provided more than 150 assists… achieving that in less than 300 matches… For comparison, Iniesta played almost 1 thousand matches over his entire career and only managed 192 assists… And sure… obviously, it’s not a straightforward comparison, since they played in different roles, but well… even Iniesta himself was a huge admirer of Ozil, once even saying that no one in the world understood football better than him…. and look, quotes like these aren’t hard to find, Ozil has been referred to as “a mix of Figo and Zidane”, “our own version of Messi”, “as good as Ronaldo or Kaká'' and at Arsenal, it was literally written into the lyrics of his chant… “You just don’t understand, he is Arsene’s man, he’s better than Zidane”. .
. And yeah, at the rate he was going, he could have ended his career with close to 400 assists, the kind of numbers that only Messi could even dream of…. but unfortunately about half way into his career, he completely spiraled out of control, leading him to retire just last week, having accumulated just 15 assists over the last 5 years, but this time around, this massive downfall wasn’t just the player’s fault, I’m not saying he had the most manageable personality, but the way he was treated at times was almost inhumane, because some of the things he got judged for were completely out of his control, they were set before he was even born… You see, Ozil was a third generation immigrant and as much as many may want to believe in a modern Germany, a more inclusive one, once you hear Ozil talk about his experience, it becomes obvious things weren’t so simple… At school, he felt so outcasted that he resorted to keeping to himself at all times, they say he was so shy, some teachers even worried he could be autistic… the only place where he stood out was in the football pitch, despite the fact that his school was a goldmine of football talent… In fact Howedes, Matip, Drxler and Neuer, all played there… but Ozil was the star of that team without a doubt… Maybe it was the fact that he did not play like a German, the kind of flair he possessed was not something you would expect from a kid born in Gelsenkirchen, he was a rare breed and the other kids didn’t even know how to deal with him… His school’s coach even claims that once they beat a team 12 nil and Ozil scored 10 of those goals… After that game was done, the other school’s coach asked to have a word with him and pleaded “Next time, please leave the turkish kid at home”.
. . which was a funny way of putting it, you see, players like Klose or Podolski were even born outside of the country, in this case, in Poland, while Ozil was genuinely born in Germany… However, whenever I studied their careers, I never recall anyone referring to them as the “polish kids”.
. . It’s subtle, but it was this kind of thing that eventually left Ozil with barely any desire to play football… You see, people don't realize this but it took over 16 years before Ozil was even awarded German citizenship… which sounds odd, because again, he was born there and his grandparents had only come to Germany because they were pretty much invited to… The Turkish exodus didn’t just appear out of thin air, it happened because there was a labor shortage, it happened because Germany had set up a recruitment program in Turkey… Look I’m no politician, I’m no sociologist, and maybe I’m failing to see something that could explain all of this… but from the outside looking in, it really does look like the only reason he was given citizenship was because his talent was made into a commodity, suddenly once again, it seemed he was only welcomed, because it was convenient to Germany… After all, if you look into it, he was rejected by the consulate over and over again… If it wasn’t for the German football federation pressuring them, who knows how long it would have taken… Regardless, let’s lighten the mood for a bit… because that year was also the year he arrived at Schalke’s academy and he was so brilliant that back then, Joachim Low, who had just taken over as the national team’s coach, would follow him around, taking notes and planning everything around him… because he believed the secret to bringing Germany to the top was to bring a bit of magic into his perfectly oiled machine and Ozil seemed like a gift from heaven… Regardless, after a year and half at Schalke, despite being in a squad with a bunch of tremendously talented young players who got shockingly close to winning the Bundesliga… Ozil fell out with the board after they failed to deliver on some of their earlier promises and quickly things got a bit ugly with Ozil forcing a move to Werder Bremen where once again, success followed him… Managing a second place finish in the Bundesliga in his first season and then following that up with an even greater second season, being extremely decisive in the champions league group stage to no avail as Bremen would still go down to the UEFA Cup, where they would get all the way to the final, only to lose to Shaktar on extra time… But it didn’t matter much, as though that would have been historic, that set back didn’t stop Ozil from scoring the only goal in the final of the German Cup a week later, closing out what had already been an exceptional campaign in the competition and handing Werder Bremen what would be their only trophy in the span of 17 years… which was historic in its own regard… But funnily enough, it would be in his third season, where Bremen went completely trophyless that Ozil would force everyone on the planet to remember his name… The first step towards that was winning the under 21 euros, getting a goal and two assists in the final as well as being named as the man of the match, even drawing comparisons to Messi at one point… The second step was to take over the Bundesliga, starting off his season with 6 goals and 9 assists in 13 matches, as well as a brilliant exhibition in the Europa League playoffs where he got a goal and 3 assists in just the first leg, something only outdone by another of his performances, 3 months later against Freiburg, where he not only scored, but managed to get an absurd 4 assists in single match, which eventually earned him the award for best player in the first half of the league season….
Which he would then add to his award for being the Europa League’s top assist provider with 7 assists despite his early exit in the round of 16 and the fact that that tally didn’t even take into account his 4 assists in the playoffs…. By the time the season was done, he had provided 28 assists and scored 10 goals in just 38 hundred minutes of football… Ozil was absolutely world class and so, rightfully, the third step was to play in the world cup… and Joachim Low was dying to call him up… So, with Arsenal and Juventus already going after him, Ozil first released a rap song for some reason and then, finally, went into the 2010 World Cup, breaking into the starting eleven immediately as Ballack was out injured, taking the man of the match award in the opening match, being involved in 3 out of the 4 goals, scoring the winning goal against Ghana to secure their place in the knockouts, which was in danger following a defeat against Serbia and finally getting assists against England and Argentina, before being knocked out by eventual champions Spain, settling himself as the competition’s top assist provider, being nominated as one of the best players in the competition and even getting massive praise from Phillip Lahm, the captain of the squad, who said “It isn’t easy to fill Ballack’s boots, but Ozil quickly proved he is one of the best in the world” while Klose, the national team’s all time top scorer made sure to say “People talk about Messi, Ronaldo and Kaká, but Ozil is as good as any of them, he will surely be the best in the world one day”. .
. But trust me, the germans weren’t the only ones mesmerized by Ozil’s talent, it’s rumored that Wayne Rooney was so infatuated by him, that he nearly begged Sir Alex to sign him and even that Barcelona had led the race for his signing for the longest time, but in the end Real Madrid came knocking and as 21 year old Ozil said “When you get the chance to join Real, there’s no decision to be made” and so that was it… Upon arrival, they handed him the number 23 shirt, previously worn by Beckham and Guti and Ozil got to work… Initially supposed to play second fiddle to Kaká, he instead was rushed to the first team as the brazilian got seriously injured and instantly set the tone, accumulating 29 assists throughout the season, the most out of any player in Europe, including 7 in the Champions League which was also the most anyone managed… Add to this a Ballon D’Or nomination and the following season, Ozil was no longer wearing the number 23… no… instead Mourinho handed him Luis Figo’s number 10… after all, sharing a shirt with maybe the greatest assist provider of the previous decade was the most fitting thing of all… And so Ozil followed in his footsteps, getting another 19 assists in La Liga, including the one for the famous Calma Calma goal, topping the charts as Real went on to accumulate 100 points, the highest in the competition’s history, leading Mourinho to say “Ozil is unique, there’s isn’t anyone else like him, not even a bad copy”. .
. And he would prove just that at the euro’s, once again putting up a stunning performance despite not going too far in the knockout stage, topping the assist charts and being part of the team of the tournament… As the 2012/2013 season started, hopes were high, Real had consistently gotten very close to making history and with Ozil ditching his long hair for a cleaner look and announcing that he would like to retire at Real, the hype was in full force… However, even though he still performed incredibly, becoming La Liga’s top assist provider for the 3rd year in a row, that season it was all a bit different… Negative comments regarding his work rate and performance in big games became more and more common, with Mourinho once going all out and repeatedly calling him a coward in front of his teammates… Which funnily enough reminds of another absurd moment he had with Mourinho… So… Ozil had been dating this italian model, every weekend he would visit her in his private jet, always showing her off to his teammates… which eventually frustrated Mourinho, who said to him: “Ozil, I’m gonna tell you something as if I were your father… That girl has screwed every single player at Inter and AC Milan and even some of the coaches…” As you might imagine, Ozil left her… Regardless, in the middle of all this drama, you wouldn’t be blamed for assuming that Mourinho’s departure at the end of the season would be beneficial to Ozil, but instead Ancelotti arrived and brought 100 million dollar Gareth Bale alongside him… which meant one of Di Maria and Ozil had to leave… so Ozil took the initiative… After all, by then, he wasn’t exactly happy in Madrid… In fact, some claim he had once again gotten into trouble over his contract negotiations, demanding from the club that they pay him as much as they were paying Ronaldo… Regardless, 30 minutes before the transfer market closed, he was sold to Arsenal for 50 million euros, not only breaking the club’s transfer record, but becoming the most expensive player ever sold by Real and the most expensive German player of all time… Which was a very impressive transfer, but also one that has now been completely overshadowed by how poor its timing was… With Ozil leaving just as Real was about to win 4 Champions Leagues in the space of 5 years… Yeah… that one hurt him for sure…but in all honesty, it clearly hurt many at Real as well… Ronaldo said “Ozil’s departure is very bad news for me, no one knew my moves like him, I’m angry that he left…”, while Ramos would be even more direct, saying “If it were up to me, he would be one of the last to leave”. .
. . But of course, on the other end, the Arsenal fans were happy… very happy, by the look of the celebrations it almost seemed like they had just won the Champions League… And there was a reason for that, after all, once he began playing, he looked like an instant hit… but then the injuries came… 3 smaller ones in the first season and a big one in the second, that left him out for 3 months… That was 24 matches missed in 2 years… and though they did win the FA Cup in both of those seasons, their first trophies in almost a decade and even though Ozil became the fastest player to hit 50 assists in the history of the premier league… it didn’t look good… but there was one minor redeeming factor… and by minor I mean the biggest competition in the sport… Among all of this, somehow, Ozil joined Germany for the 2014 world cup, was deployed out of position to compensate for Marcos Reus’ absence and still managed to impress, scoring the decisive goal in extra time vs Algeria and being the tournament leader for most of the creative stats, impressing enough, that once Germany had been crowned champions of the world, UEFA president and 3 time Ballon D’Or winner, Michel Platini, approached him and asked him for his shirt… that doesn’t happen that often… But back to Arsenal… With many assuming that Ozil would become another player who fell prey to the curse of never ending injuries, in 2015/2016 he barely missed any minutes in the league… which in return allowed him to hit an astonishing 19 assists in the competition, just 1 shy off Henry’s record… taking Arsenal to a second place finish, their best in a space of 17 years… in fact, for a long time they were on top of the table, going as far as February, but, unfortunately, a poor end to the season ruined their chances of taking the title… However, what no one expected was that period would be perhaps the last time Ozil played like Ozil… After winning the FA Cup once more the following season and even putting up those performances vs Ludogorets that saw him assist 2 and score 4, including THAT goal… suddenly he found himself at a crossroads… In 2018, Arsenal had decided they would only keep one of Alexis Sanchez and Ozil… Sure Sanchez was more reliable and had a better workrate, after all at the time, there were even rumors, Arsene Wenger and Ozil had struck a deal that would allow him to skip a few matches here and there, pretending he was sick, so he could get some free time… but in the end Ozil’s brand was simply too big, he was one of the most marketable players in the world and that spoke volumes… meaning that very soon, Sanchez was on his way out, while Ozil, who was already the most well paid player in the squad, got a contract renewal that made him the highest paid player in the club’s history, earning more than twice as he did before, at an astonishing 350k a week… Let’s just say that this was quite simply one of the… if not the worst contract renewal of all time… For a while Arsenal had been described as beautiful but fragile, and in a way Ozil represented just that, the only problem was that unfortunately for them… in 2018, his fragility got to him, it was time to break… It started out of nowhere and suddenly, Ozil had been consumed by drama… First came the World Cup dilemma… Before the tournament had even started, a photo of Ozil posing alongside controversial Turkish president, Erdogan, came out… And most people in Germany did not like it at all, after all with Ozil being the poster boy of multicultural Germany, many thought that at the very least it wasn’t a good look, while others were completely enraged at him… But before that whole drama had even faded away, Germany was shockingly knocked out of the world cup in the group stage… And it was like the scapegoat had been picked before the tournament even started… Ozil was singled out by everyone… by the fans, by the media, even by the federation… Ozil felt he had been thrown under the bus and he had a guess as to why that was… and one month later, he finally had enough and posted a handful of messages on social media, addressing everything… First of all, he claimed he met Erdogan randomly in London at a charitable event he was sponsoring… that he had no intention of promoting his campaign, that it was just a photo, something he would have done with any other Turkish politician… claiming that the photo had been leveraged into Erdogan’s campaign without Ozil’s permission… and calling out the preferential treatment received by Matthaus, who had posed alongside Putin around that same time, but received virtually no backlash… Then came the biggest bombshell of all, a text in which he claimed DFB president,Grindel, had also leveraged this media chaos in order to push his anti immigration political agenda, instead of focusing on getting the team back on track… Even calling Grindel out for the fact that decades back, he had been one of the members of parliament that voted against the legislation for dual-nationalities, which was what made it so hard for Ozil to get German citizenship before they had even met… as well as bringing back some negative comments he had made regarding Muslim communities, before adding the now iconic sentence… “In their eyes, I am German when we win, but an immigrant when we lose”.
. . before wrapping it all up by announcing his retirement from the German national team… However, I gotta say that inviting Erdogan to his wedding following all of this, was at the very least a very, very strange move… but moving on… If one scandal wasn’t enough, once back at Arsenal, Ozil found himself in the middle of another… Soon after his contract renewal, Wenger left and Unai Emery came to replace him… which became a problem when Ozil began underperforming and struggling with injuries once more, leading Emery to sideline him constantly, further aggravating the problem and leading Ozil down a rabbit hole that culminated into some of the worst seasons in his career… Straining their relationship more and more, to the point that leaks to the media regarding supposed clashes between the two would become an everyday thing, leading Andy Cole to refer to all of it as a “real life comedy sketch”.
. . Which might be a good way of putting it as, after all, around that same time, we also get to see teammate Kolasinac defend Ozil from a carjacking attempt, going after the robbers who were literally wielding knives… which still doesn’t even sound like a real thing that actually happened… But anyways, all of this only got aggravated once the pandemic came and Ozil refused to take a pay cut like all the other players, shocking everyone, though to be fair he claimed he only did it, because the board was acting shady and refusing to tell the players what the money would be used on… With the necessary sprinkle of comedy being added towards the end of the whole saga, when Arsenal announced they would fire their mascot Gunnersaurus in order to cut costs, only for Ozil to come forward, saying he would pay for his salary himself… yeah this had to be a comedy indeed… But yeah, as it seemed Ozil’s career was hanging by a string, a series of brand new blows came his way… first with his comments regarding the treatment of Uighur muslims in China, leading their government to ban the broadcast of Arsenal games across the whole country, while Arsenal controversially refused to make any comments on the subject, right before going out of their way to announce their support for the BLM movement, which despite being a good thing, was oddly ironic… Suddenly the ever so makertable Ozil, was not marketable at all and so in 2021, with Arteta now in command, Arsenal opted for the incredible decision of not even registering the most well paid player in the history of the club for any competitions… After this disaster, Ozil reached an agreement with them and even left for his childhood club Fenerbahce, hoping to regain his joy, but 11 injuries over his two seasons there, as well as problems with the coach led to his departure, joining Basaksehir… a state owned club, who many say is pretty much owned by none other than Erdogan, in reality… I guess that was the cherry on the cake Ozil needed before finally announcing his retirement after playing only 7 matches for his new team….
