The dark misunderstanding of Mesut Özil

The dark misunderstanding of Mesut Özil

Mesut Özil is a German hero. But after a photo with Erdogan, anger and hatred are unleashed on him. The story continues to cause pain even during the DFB team's match against Turkey. Germany and Özil are making fatal mistakes.

When the German national soccer team meets the Turkish team in Berlin's Olympic Stadium this evening(20:45/RTL and in the live ticker on ntv.de), he will not be there. And yet many will be thinking of him. Mesut Özil. One of the best footballers the two countries have ever produced. A boy from Gelsenkirchen, the son of Turkish so-called guest workers. It is not known whether Özil will be watching the game. Who would he be rooting for?

Even without being on the pitch, Mesut Özil continues to touch Germany. A good 13 years after he last played for a German club, five years after his retirement from the DFB squad and eight months after his career ended in the Turkish Süper Lig. A podcast recently revisited the rise and fall of the now 35-year-old, with his father giving interviews to the makers and "Sport Bild". For some, the Rio world champion continues to excite, for others he makes them think. Also because he now seems even less tangible than usual away from his Ruhr Valley home in Turkey. Because there are many dark misunderstandings and painful debates surrounding him. Because Özil has attracted and continues to attract more hatred than any German footballer before him.

Yet the boy from Gelsenkirchen was a German hero. For a few years at least. In 2010, Özil came up trumps as a youngster at the World Cup in South Africa and whirled his way to the semi-finals with the German national team. Four years later, he triumphed in Brazil thanks in part to his brilliant passes and the space he created. At the age of 25, the playmaker was right at the top. In footballing terms.

Anger at "symbol" Özil

But in 2010, Özil also became "more", became a symbol. Unintentionally. He was the first ever to receive the Integration Bambi. Visibly uncomfortable, he struggles onto the stage in front of the German A, B and C celebrities, stutters a short, memorized speech into the microphone - and is suddenly supposed to be responsible for the understanding of different cultures in Germany. Whether he likes it or not. However, Özil, the integration mascot, is dropped as quickly as he was chosen.

After many years of criticism of his play and body language, Özil's fall from grace followed in 2018. First the photo with Turkish President Erdoğan, then his resignation from the national team after the DFB team's disastrous World Cup in Russia. Suddenly anger and hatred reigned. "Özil felt a lot of racism in the debate," says Khesrau Behroz, who researched the topic for over a year for the podcast"SchwarzRotGold: Mesut Özil zu Gast bei Freunden" and spoke to many of the ex-professional's companions, to ntv.de. According to the journalist, the photo and Özil's crisis management can be criticized, but as soon as "it is used as a pretext to stir up anti-Muslim and racist resentment, as the AfD has done or as we have heard in the stadiums, it cannot be excused."

Eight years after his integration award, something is unloading on Özil. German society, which since 2010 has experienced a so-called "refugee crisis", a "neighborhood dispute" between the then AfD vice Alexander Gauland and Jérôme Boateng and an EU-Turkey deal to fend off asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and other countries, is projecting its anger at the increasingly autocratic Erdoğan and deep-seated prejudices and dislikes towards Germans with a history of migration onto the footballer. Like every human being, Özil was not morally pure back then. But decency and impeccability are expected of him with greater vehemence than of his teammates without a history of migration, such as Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller or Toni Kroos.

"We applied double standards," says Karim Khattab, the second creator of the Özil podcast, to ntv.de about the situation at the time. "We canceled a soccer player for a photo with the same person with whom we have a pact to defend refugees. Everyone had an opinion on Özil, no one had an opinion on our relationship with Erdoğan."

Özil seeks support from extremists

Hate and racism are spewed at Özil during DFB matches. He resigns via Twitter - with an English-only statement. A middle finger to Germany? He accuses people in the DFB of racism, but nobody there wants to know anything about it. Instead, Germany is boiling. Uli Hoeneß, a convicted tax evader, and with him almost the whole of footballing Germany publicly attacked Özil, also for undermining the moral standards of soccer. Soccer, which in 2018 was already deep in the FIFA swamp full of power-hungry tricksters. Including the summer fairytale affair and the World Cups awarded to Russia and Qatar.

Mesut Özil felt alienated in his own country by 2018 at the latest. How much did he sympathize with Erdoğan back then? Unknown, but he is now increasingly seeking protection from the father figure. This is also due to the fact that the footballer broke up with his father, Mustafa Özil, in 2013/14. The former DFB star soon moves to Turkey and gets married there. With Erdoğan as best man.

Although many Turks used to dislike him because he was born and raised in Germany and ultimately chose the German national team, Özil is now looking to them for protection and identity. He is presumably becoming increasingly nationalistic. In July, his fitness trainer published a photo of Özil with a naked upper body and a large tattoo with the symbol of the right-wing extremist association "Grey Wolves" emblazoned on his heart.

Apart from this tattoo, podcasters Behroz and Khattab find nothing about Özil and the Grey Wolves. However, conversations with members have shown that the group does not want the ex-professional in its ranks. "They laughed out loud at Özil when they saw the tattoo. They don't want him at all. In their opinion, a guy who chooses the German national team can't be a Turkish nationalist," says Behroz. The tattoo could be seen as a "cry for belonging". Özil, a seeker of stability? He himself has never once commented on the symbol on his chest.

Özil's fatal mistake

In a 2019 interview with "The Athletic", Özil spoke about his time at Arsenal FC: "If we don't play well in an important game, it's always my fault." Time and again, his words reveal how an insecure, highly talented player often projects criticism of his game onto himself and sees it as criticism of his person. How he feels a particular pressure to conform and justify himself. How he searches for the self, for belonging and a home. This may also have driven him to get a tattoo. Podcaster Behroz says: "He is not welcome in Germany and many people in Turkey call him a traitor because he played for the German national team. He is looking for identity and recognition." How many Özils are sitting in the stands of the Olympic Stadium that evening who feel somewhat alienated in both Germany and Turkey?

"In Özil's case, it's probably more of a nationalist than a fascist statement. Which is not read negatively in his pro-Erdoğan bubble," Khattab adds, because the breadth of the Gray Wolves' significance is great in Turkey. In fact, Özil's tattoo comes as no surprise. The Turkish president is not only known for his harsh treatment of dissenters; numerous journalists, academics and other members of the opposition are imprisoned in his prisons for political reasons.

Since 2018, his party, the AKP, has also been in an electoral alliance with the far-right, ultra-nationalist and EU-sceptical MHP, the People's Alliance, with which the AKP holds the majority in the Grand National Assembly. The MHP is considered the political arm of the "Gray Wolves" of party founder Alparslan Türkeş and racism is a central pillar of the party's ideology. This racism is primarily directed against Armenians, Kurds and Jews.

The tattoo is Özil's latest dark misunderstanding. A fatal mistake for someone who - according to his many posts on social media - wants to stand for Muslim people and peace. Since his break with his father, who is not religious, Özil has increasingly turned his religion outwards and made it public in posts such as his first trip to Mecca in 2016. He must know that the Grey Wolves don't just stand for proud Turks. They want to oust all non-Turkish people from Turkey, and they even want to destroy extremes of the group. Whether Kurds, Jews - or the Arab-Muslim minority, which is being harassed above all on the border with Syria, where it has fled from Assad and bombs.

Basler "does not want to let Özil go to Germany"

Özil is still part of the debate in Germany today. And some of the words have not changed in five years. Anger and resentment still run deep. Because he is still a symbol, even former footballers throw AfD slogans at him: "If I had anything to say, I wouldn't let him back into Germany," said ex-professional Mario Basler in a fan talk on Sport1 a few days ago. He still finds Özil's accusations of racism against the DFB "absolutely outrageous". The audience applauds.

As in 2018, something is once again erupting in Germany these days: be it anti-Muslim resentment, be it anti-Semitic resentment. Be it because of the Gaza war, be it because of the high number of asylum seekers in Germany. Özil is right in the middle of it all. He recently made several pro-Palestinian posts on social media, lamenting victims on both sides of the Gaza war, but did not directly condemn the Hamas attacks shortly after the attacks. Awkwardness or intent?

"Özil sees children dying in Gaza and is a Muslim and makes a post about it," says podcaster Behroz. "I don't think he had a big thought process à la Robert Habeck to pick everyone up with a speech. That's part of his religious history." He and his colleague explain that they found no signs of anti-Semitism in a year of research. The question of whether Özil "only" means equal rights for all with "Free Palestine" in his post or whether he wants to deny Israel the right to exist remains unanswered until the ex-professional comments on social media. He may remain silent to the German press forever.

Turkish President Erdoğan described Hamas as a "liberation organization" after the terrorist attack. He is now in Germany for the first time since 2020. After meeting Olaf Scholz on Friday, he condemned Israel's actions but, like the Chancellor, spoke out in favor of a two-state solution. According to initial plans, he will not be attending his national team's match against the DFB team after all. A special boy from Gelsenkirchen - who has turned his back on Germany, a country that has not always wanted him well, and who seems to have lost his way - will not be there either. And yet somehow he always is.

1. Despite not being on the pitch during Germany's match against Turkey in Berlin, Mesut Özil, the German-Turkish footballer, continues to be a topic of conversation due to his complex relationship with his homeland.
2. Following his photo with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Özil faced intense criticism and anger from some sections of German society, leading to a debate about integration, racism, and national identity.
3. In Turkey, Özil is now seeking support and identity, leading to some controversies, such as the controversy surrounding a tattoo he got that features a symbol related to the far-right extremist group "Grey Wolves."

Source: www.ntv.de