May 2018: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, holds an Özil shirt together with Mesut Özil Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Pool Presdential Press Service/AP
From the BZ editorial team
Is ex-soccer player Mesut Özil (34) now a politician? This is reported by the Turkish news portal “Haber7.com”. Accordingly, his name is on the candidate list of the governing party AKP – the party of the authoritarian Turkish ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan (69).
Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in Turkey on May 14th. Erdogan recently announced that “surprising names” would appear on the list of candidates – including a name from the sports industry.
Özil and politics – a longer story
It is no surprise that Özil is running for Erdogan’s party. The ex-soccer player came out as an Erdogan fan years ago, and in 2019 the President of Turkey was even the best man at Özil’s wedding.
In 2018, Özil caused a stir because of a photo with the authoritarian president. Özil – then a German international – did not distance himself from Erdogan, but did not want the photo to be understood as a political message. In the course of the debates, Özil then withdrew from the national team.
Mesut Özil also repeatedly comments on political issues. On April 7, he called on his Twitter followers (26.4 million) to show solidarity with the Palestinians. He also posted a photo in which he was wearing a shirt that read “Free Palestine”. It is an anti-Israeli slogan, since the so-called “liberation” of the Palestinians would mean the end of the Jewish state.
Özil is also right on course with Erdogan on this issue: Erdogan has repeatedly compared the Jewish state with the Nazi regime and thus downplayed the Holocaust. Erdogan’s party was recently ahead in polls, but far behind the 2018 election results.