Mesut Özil was a gifted footballer, the passes, the overview, the left foot. Recently, however, he has rarely been seen playing, the back. Now Özil has ended his career.
When Mesut Özil was at the peak of his career, Gary Lineker remembered a kitchen appliance in his enthusiasm. It was the 2015/16 season and football fans in England, and not just Arsenal, were in raptures. About Özil and his left foot, about his technique and his understanding of the game. Once he assisted nine goals in seven consecutive games.
Özil, Lineker said, could play anything with his left foot, even a pass through a cheese grater, he wouldn’t even touch it. Of course that was a huge exaggeration, but that’s how it was back then. Wherever Özil was, there was always the idea of magic during these months. And the left foot was his wand.
Now Özil, 34, has ended his career, it’s a farewell without any magic. “I’ve had the great privilege of being a pro for 17 years and I’m eternally grateful for this opportunity”, wrote Özil on Twitter. And that was it.
Recently, only rarely has anyone raved about Özil’s football
During his career, Özil has played for Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, for Real Madrid and Arsenal FC, for Fenerbahce and most recently for Basaksehir. He has played 645 games, scored 114 goals and provided 222 assists. Özil was world champion with Germany, champion in Spain, cup winner in England. But recently nobody has raved about his football.
Mesut Özil in Arsenal FC kit
At the beginning of February, Özil was back on the pitch, playing one half, but Basaksehir lost 1-0 at Kayserispor. It was Özil’s longest stint this season. He came in the summer as a beacon of hope, but he only played four times in the league, a total of 70 minutes.
First Özil was not fit, later he injured his back, recently he apparently lost interest. Or belief in your body.
Mesut Özil: Photos with Erdogan, the silence and the resignation
It is also the end of a chronology that tells of a continuous descent. From photos with an autocrat, disappointments, suspensions. From someone who only ever wanted to be a footballer, and sometimes was more.
The slow descent of footballer Mesut Özil began one day in mid-May 2018, when less than 24 hours before the nomination of the provisional German World Cup squad, photos appeared that were supposed to cause a stir. They featured national players Özil and Ilkay Gündogan, posing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan six weeks before the early parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey.
The outcry was great. The national coach at the time, Joachim Löw, called it one “unfortunate action” and nominated Özil and Gündogan. During a preparatory game, both were whistled at. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that he had the photos “made a bit perplexed”. Gündogan wrote that they had no intention of “to make a political statement with this picture.” Only Özil was silent.
Germany was eliminated in the first round of the World Cup. Özil only broke his silence four weeks later. And how. “It is with a heavy heart and after careful consideration that I will no longer play for the German national team due to the past events.”he wrote on social media, criticizing “Racism and lack of respect”.
Wenger was followed by Emery and Arteta – that wasn’t good news for Özil
And then the coach at Özil’s FC Arsenal was no longer called Arsene Wenger. Özil enjoyed a lot of freedom under Wenger, he tailored the game to him. Now Unai Emery took over – and he had other ideas. Özil stayed two and a half years longer than Emery, but magical moments became rarer. At some point they stopped altogether.
Under coach Mikel Arteta, Özil then played less and less and then not at all. There is also a photograph from this period that is remembered. It was created in the summer of 2020 in a Premier League game against Southampton FC. Özil didn’t play a second that day, but the picture went around the football world. So there Özil was sitting in the stands, holding a red umbrella in one hand to protect himself from the sun.
Mesut Özil with a red umbrella in the stands
Özil at Fenerbahce – first hope, then suspended
In January 2021, Özil moved to Fenerbahce, but he wasn’t happy there either. Until March 2022 he only played 37 games, scored nine goals and provided three assists. Then the club suspended him, the reasons for this were never made public. Once, however, the club president Ali Koc Özil said he had to finally concentrate on his work.
So Özil changed again, that was in the summer of 2022 and his new club Basaksehir, it’s a club graced by Erdogan. The powerful there are Erdogan’s confidants, and his portrait hangs in the entrance area of the club’s premises. It is not known if Özil knew about this or if it affected him when he joined.
But you now know the end of the story, it’s not a nice one. In the last years of his career, the footballer Mesut Özil was a magician without a wand, he didn’t find it again at Basaksehir. Gary Lineker’s crushes almost seem like a relic from bygone times.