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Breaking | Mesut Özil has announced his retirement from international football.
[B]Get German Football News[/B] @[B]GGFN[/B] 29s29 seconds ago
Mesut Özil: "The treatment I have received from the DFB & many others makes me no longer want to wear the German national team shirt. I feel unwanted & think that what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten."
He really goes to town in the full statement :-
Fair play.
Very interesting statement, I think many sports people in this country also go through similar injustices.
Btw, I agree that he should speak out against unfair treatment
But throwing your toys out of the pram is not the way to take the moral high-ground
I have mixed views on it. The reaction to it all have been over the top, but he should not have had that photo. Erdogan is a controversial figure who has been working to take his country away from democracy, a free press and human rights and move towards a dictatorship. I refuse to believe that Ozil and his advisors were oblivious to what he is doing. People like the Prime Minister had to engage for diplomatic reasons. Ozil does not. Plus, he talks of respect for Turkey just because it's Turkey, but where is his respect for Germany right now?He says he's retired because of the DFB and their president; in particular the way they handled the Erdogan scenario.
But surely there's more to playing for your country than a group of old farts in a Frankfurt boardroom?
You play for the fans, the other members of your nation and your team-mates.
This is typical Ozil. He's taken some flak from a few critics, the national team has also had a mare and since he's already got a WC winning medal, he doesn't have the motivation to help the next generation of German players achieve their WC glory.
So glad he's not stealing a £300k p/w living at our club.
Only missing Monreal Torreira lichsteiner xhaka welbeck. That’s a mid table squad. Only hope is Aubameyang and Lacazette absolutely rip it up.
He says he's retired because of the DFB and their president; in particular the way they handled the Erdogan scenario.
But surely there's more to playing for your country than a group of old farts in a Frankfurt boardroom?
You play for the fans, the other members of your nation and your team-mates.
This is typical Ozil. He's taken some flak from a few critics, the national team has also had a mare and since he's already got a WC winning medal, he doesn't have the motivation to help the next generation of German players achieve their WC glory.
So glad he's not stealing a £300k p/w living at our club.
I disagree, he's choosing to make a stand. Like some black players ignore the racism others take more of a stand. Both can be useful ways of combating racism. Making a stand is not lazy, if anything by doing so he has put himself more in the spotlight, which in turn make him a bigger target. I don't care if he plays for the arse and gets 300 grand a week. That has nothing to do with it.I have mixed views on it. The reaction to it all have been over the top, but he should not have had that photo. Erdogan is a controversial figure who has been working to take his country away from democracy, a free press and human rights and move towards a dictatorship. I refuse to believe that Ozil and his advisors were oblivious to what he is doing. People like the Prime Minister had to engage for diplomatic reasons. Ozil does not. Plus, he talks of respect for Turkey just because it's Turkey, but where is his respect for Germany right now?
Having said that, I think the whole thing has been hijacked by those in Germany looking to foster anti-immigrant sentiment. Over ten percent of the German population is foreign born, and ten percent of those were the entrants Merkel invited in in response to the refugee crisis. While it is a massive ethical conundrum when faced with desperate people, the fact is that you cannot invite in over a million people from different cultural backgrounds overnight, as Merkel did, and not have it augment society. This is with Germany already having the highest number of immigrants in Europe. It was inevitable there would be a backlash and so people of immigrant stock who hail in particular from Muslim countries are now the targets by the resurgent hard right, and not just in Germany either but across Europe.
Personally I think if Ozil feels this is due to the right wing press he is basically giving them the win by wimping out. He is showing disrespect to his teammates, his country of birth and, most importantly, the German football fans. He no doubt could've played for the Turkish national side but chose Germany instead. So now he is letting down his nation and allowing bigotry to win. If the office of the Turkish president is bigger than the man, then Germany is bigger than the German press. A real professional would have gotten his head down and shown just how good of a player he could be. Let the country get behind him as a real star and stick it to the bigots. Instead he's gone for the lazy option in my opinion, acting the sulkly little bitch. Still, not entirely surprising given he strolls around for the gooners on auto-pilot unless he's got a new contract in the pipeline (and his little line about training harder due to bad press made me laugh).
So yeah, fuck you Ozil for not having the balls to stand up and fight.
How are they even in this competition
He says he's retired because of the DFB and their president; in particular the way they handled the Erdogan scenario.
But surely there's more to playing for your country than a group of old farts in a Frankfurt boardroom?
You play for the fans, the other members of your nation and your team-mates.
This is typical Ozil. He's taken some flak from a few critics, the national team has also had a mare and since he's already got a WC winning medal, he doesn't have the motivation to help the next generation of German players achieve their WC glory.
So glad he's not stealing a £300k p/w living at our club.
Uli Hoeness hasn't reacted too well to it - http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ears-says-bayern-munich-president-uli-hoeness
"I'm glad it is over. He's been playing dirt for years.
"He last won a tackle before the 2014 World Cup. And now he hides himself and his c*** performance behind this photo.
"His 35 million follower boys, who of course do not exist in the real world, think he has played excellently if he plays a cross to a man."
"Whenever we played against Arsenal, we played over him, because we know he's the weak point",
Savage.
That's part of his point though, it's not just the president and all of that stuff that's made him make this decision. It's the fans and everything else too. There's a lot to take away from his statement but for me, these are the main quotes:
"I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.”
"My friends Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose are never referred to as German-Polish so why am I German-Turkish? Is it because it’s Turkey? Is it because I’m a Muslim?"
I am fully with Ozil on this one. Say what you will about him as a footballer, about Arsenal and his contracts etc... he's pointing out racism in a system that he's been dealing with and has decided to not align himself with that system so he fully has my support here.
Uli Hoeness hasn't reacted too well to it - http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ears-says-bayern-munich-president-uli-hoeness
"I'm glad it is over. He's been playing dirt for years.
"He last won a tackle before the 2014 World Cup. And now he hides himself and his c*** performance behind this photo.
"His 35 million follower boys, who of course do not exist in the real world, think he has played excellently if he plays a cross to a man."
"Whenever we played against Arsenal, we played over him, because we know he's the weak point",
Savage.
I seem to remember Lukaku saying something similar about he is treated by the Belgian fans and media recently.
As someone who doesn't follow the German press closely I'm interested to know, is it the same with other Muslim German players? Am sure Gundogan has got plenty of stick for posing with Erdogan as well, but what about before? What about Sami Khedira or Shkodran Mustafi? Do they get a disproportionate amount of criticism? Ozil definitely seems to take a lot of stick, but I wonder if that's because of his religion/ethnicity or whether because people get so frustrated that a man who is clearly one of the most talented players of his generation so regularly disappoints when it matters most.
Uli Hoeness hasn't reacted too well to it - http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ears-says-bayern-munich-president-uli-hoeness
"I'm glad it is over. He's been playing dirt for years.
"He last won a tackle before the 2014 World Cup. And now he hides himself and his c*** performance behind this photo.
"His 35 million follower boys, who of course do not exist in the real world, think he has played excellently if he plays a cross to a man."
"Whenever we played against Arsenal, we played over him, because we know he's the weak point",
Savage.
Firstly, can't remember the validity of the comments but essentially"
Karim Benzema: “if I score Im French and if I dont Im Arab”
Romelu Lukako: “When things are well they call me Lukaku the Belgian striker. When things aren't they call me Lukaku the Belgian striker from Congo"
Secondly... I don't pretend to know much about the German treatment of other players BUT... I had to bold the last part of your post cause that's a bit of a lie. I am far from an Ozil fan generally speaking but he's been pretty great for Germany. In 2014 he was their highest scoring player in their qualifying group. He had to play out of position for most of that world cup and still was in the top 3 for passes in the whole tournament and passes in the final third for the whole tournament only coming behind Messi who won the Golden Ball that year, so he did pretty good.
IIRC since his debut for the senior team in 2009 no German player has made more assists than him. He also created more chances per 90 minutes than any other player at the 2018 World Cup (minimum 90 minutes played). (last stat provided by Opta Joe)
He's done pretty damn good for Germany year after year, even when he is underperforming for Arsenal.
Even at this world cup, whilst he wasn't great it's not like any of the other German stars performed well. It's ironic you suggesting he so regularly disappoints when it matters most cause this is kinda exactly the point. There's so much focus on Ozil and what he does even though he's not done anything worse or played worse than any of the rest of the team. The amount of shit he gets doesn't match his performances or that of his teammates performances (for Germany).
Arsenal is a whole other matter cause that's a case of him going missing in a few of their big games and not justifying his insane wages but he pretty much always performs for Germany.