it’s easy to forget to the incredible heights meseterzil has reached during his 15-year career since honing his skills on the streets of gelsenkirchen the playmaker has wowed audiences around the world for club and country winning countless honours along the way a four-time ballon d’or nominee there are very few who come close to matching his achievements in the game yet over the past few seasons his star quality has rapidly faded shunned by an underperforming arsenal side who are determined to move him on his time among the elite is all but
finished but how did it reach this point we are taking a closer look at the rise and fall of mesut ozil one of the most gifted creators the premier league has ever seen rise to fame the son of second generation turkish german nationals ozil started off at his boyhood club shaoka in 2016. however a fallout with the club over his wages meant he was sold to verda bremen two years later for merely five million euros it was a decision shaoka would live to regret in his first full season with verda ozil lit up the bundesliga with three goals

and 15 assists he reached the uefa cup final then claimed the 0809 dfb-po kyle trophy thanks to his winning goal against bayer leverkusen a few months later a man of the match performance in the final of the european under-21s championships delivered his next piece of silverware in a side featuring household stars like manuel neuer jerome boateng and matt tummles it was ozil’s name that stood out at the spearhead of bremen’s midfield diamond 12 months later ozil finished the season with a ridiculous 10 goals and 29 assists in all competitions
combining what he would later describe as his turkish flair with his german attitude urzol was simply unplayable averaging a goal involvement every other game for the river islanders that summer ozil found himself on the plane to south africa having forced his way into germany’s world cup squad a pre-tournament injury to michael ballack had thrown him into starting contention and the young talent wasted little time impressing on the greatest stage of all ozil contributed three assists as demand shaft stormed to the semi-finals
obliterating england and argentina before falling to spain fifa named urzel among the competition’s 10 best players and miroslav closer labelled him a future world player of the year real madrid and jose mourinho took note and 20 million euros later he was off to the spanish capital his national team’s first great success from an immigrant background ozil’s slim build and mesmerizing elegance had always differed from the tactically disciplined and physically imposing football the germans were used to however in the glitzy world of the
galacticos urzul would be right at home it wasn’t long before he had replaced kaka as their main creator in his first season at the bernabeu ozil ended on 25 assists the most from any player in any major european competition quite remarkably he would go on to add an additional 69 goals in all competitions across the next two campaigns finishing as the highest assist maker in la liga three years running in cristiano ronaldo he discovered the perfect dancing partner ozil laid on 27 assists for the deadly forward during his time in madrid

the most of anyone in that period together they inspired los blancos to the 2011-12 league title when they became the first side to break the 100 points barrier in the competition’s history burzel was at the peak of his powers and declared his desire to see out his career in the spanish capital but at the end of the 2012-13 season that was no longer possible start of the decline jose mourinho was fired following a trophy-less campaign and carlo and celotti brought in meanwhile madrid’s president florentino perez embarked on a monumental 160
million pound spending spree including breaking the world transfer record to sign gareth bale it was a huge investment and even with multiple departures madrid was short of funds ancelotti was told either mesut ozil or angel di maria would have to go next ferzil perhaps feeling his position was untouchable had already agitated real’s hierarchy by demanding pay parity with cristiano ronaldo this was never met and once it was established ancelotti favored di maria following an impressive pre-season his departure was sanctioned arsenal
arrived pulling off a spectacular 42.3 million pound deal to much fanfare it was the biggest sale in los blancos history and received immediate backlash from madrid players and fans alike most significantly from ronaldo himself blasting the departure is very bad news for ozil though the decision to join arsenal was met with some confusion he was arguably the world’s best number 10 yet the gunners hadn’t won a trophy in almost a decade and struggled to keep their top players it was undoubtedly a step down in his career but in truth the german
was offered a surprising lack of alternatives four years later and ozil had charmed an adoring emirates faithful in his first two seasons he helped arsenal capture consecutive fa cups either side of tasting world cup glory in brazil this was before adding a third fa cup trophy in 2017-18 though for all the silverware 2015-16 proved to be his finest campaign to date in england ozil laid on a stunning 4.
2 key passes per 90 to finish the season with 19 premier league assists one shy of thierry henry’s competition record arsenal would even finish second that year their best result since 2004.05 yet by the start of the 1718 season the north londoners faced a dilemma both meseterso and alexis sanchez were entering the final year of their contracts and it was financially impossible to re-sign both their talisman the club had a decision to make and there were plenty of reasons to go with the chilean for all his success it was often felt
ozil went missing against the toughest of opponents most notably during crushing defeats by bayern munich in the champions league the same issues had been echoed at madrid where fitness struggles and mental lapses ruined the latter stages of his games then there were questions over his commitment it’s been suggested that under wenger ursul could pick and choose which matches he played with illness used to cover his absence for all his quality sanchez was far more reliable however the south american could never match his commercial pool
with 83 million followers across his social media platforms ozil proved an invaluable asset for shirt sales and beyond and so in january 2018 sanchez headed to manchester united while arsenal handed ozzle a new three-year extension to the tune 350k per week not only made him the highest paid player in arsenal’s history but one of the top earners in english football sure enough a massive 250 million pound kit deal with adidas a lucrative partnership with visit rwanda followed closely after his signature this was supposed to be a triumph for

arsenal a renewed demonstration of their status among football’s elite but roll on six months and change what’s happening at the emirates once more fall from grace after 22 years in charge arsene wenger finally left arsenal in his place arrived unai emery along with his aggressive brand of attacking football the spaniard wanted his side to press hard including his playmaker despite some initial success for erzol it became evident emery preferred aaron ramsey as his attacking central midfielder thanks to his defensive work rate with
granit xhaka and lucas torreira providing a double pivot with either a 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 ozil was pushed out to the wing where his lack of pace held him back as the season dragged on the 30 year old’s numbers plummeted by december he had only posted a single assist and he again went missing with various back injuries and illnesses just six goal involvements followed and he would end the campaign on his lowest league minutes and keep our statistics since his days with schalke this all came against the backdrop of a
disastrous world cup campaign in russia where erzo emerged as the scapegoat for germany’s failure to exit the group stage in an explosive turn of events he retired from international football while accusing the german fa of racial discrimination right or wrongly his status on the world stage was dwindling by the end of the 2019-20 campaign ozil’s fall from grace was complete the arrival of mikkel arteta had failed to reinvigorate their most talented player and as march approached the german still only had three goal
involvements from just under 1500 league minutes yet for all his struggles to produce in the final third ozil was still regularly involved however that would change as the world plunged into the global pandemic tensions had already been brewing between the player and club as arsenal publicly distanced themselves from comments urzel made denouncing the treatment of uyghur muslims by the chinese government how much of an impact this had on what was to follow is open to debate but the next stage of events would create an irreversible rift between the
two with football on pause arsenal’s finances took a significant hit and multiple redundancies were made behind the scenes in response the players were asked to take a 12.5 percent pay cut to help but ozil refused the german would later cite a lack of information from the board as his reason but considering his status as their biggest earner it proved a significant turning point in his relationship with his employer his decision to then publicly embarrass the board by offering financial support to the recently redundant club mascot
the gonosaurus did little to help the situation when football returned ozil did not his involvement in arsenal’s victory over west ham united last march looks to be his last their feelings towards their number 10 were made abundantly clear when arteta left him out of the squad entirely for the current campaign and even with the side crying out for a creative spark it never appeared likely that ozil had a future at the emirates now with a long touted move to fenerbahce finally in the making and enter the impasse is in sight
whether he heads to turkey or america next remains to be seen but the sad reality is for ozil his time at the highest level is over at just 32. unfortunately for the playmaker his mercurial brand of football has lost value in the modern game though his inability to adapt has never helped his cause ozil will leave arsenal with mixed emotions having achieved so much yet crashed so suddenly but irrelevant of what’s happened it shouldn’t be forgotten what a showman he was when he decided to let the magic flow that’s all we have time for today but
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