"The gray wolves laughed out loud at Mesut Özil"
Mesut Özil was at the top of his game as world champion in 2014 - then followed a deep fall the likes of which has rarely been seen. A new podcast explores Özil's path to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish nationalism. The makers Khesrau Behroz and Karim Khattabtalk to ntv.de aboutÖzil's religious Gaza postings, his father, the infamous resignation in 2018 - and fatal mistakes made by German society.
Ntv.de: For your new podcast "SchwarzRotGold: Mesut Özil zu Gast bei Freunden" (BlackRedGold: Mesut Özil as a guest with friends), you spent over a year with the Rio world champion and spoke to many of his companions: Did you manage to get hold of one of the most elusive German footballers?
Karim Khattab: That's exactly what makes Mesut Özil so special: That he is not so easy to grasp. Özil is not just black and white. In the course of our research, we got to know many of his shades of gray.
Khesrau Behroz: We can only get close to the people in our podcasts, but we were able to gain a clear impression of him because various people describe him in a similar way. They told us independently of each other: Özil is a reserved, modest person. Someone who just wants to play soccer.
Of course, that's in stark contrast to how Özil is sometimes portrayed on social media.
Khattab: Compared to the colleagues of his time, his ostentation is somewhat limited. He doesn't eat golden steak like Franck Ribéry, he doesn't fly to training by helicopter like Jens Lehmann. Instead, he has often donated prize money. Of course he drives a big car and has a big watch. This is also an expression of the completely overheated soccer system with absurd salaries. Footballers are pushed into these careers from an early age and then it's too much to ask them to live super modestly. Many people have told us that all Özil really wants is a big sofa for his friends and a Playstation.
For people who outwardly portray ostentation, under the surface it's often about emotional insecurity and the search for self and identity.
Behroz: The Özil after the national team is a man who sits on two different chairs and is pushed down from both. He is not welcome in Germany and many in Turkey call him a traitor because he played for the German national team. He is looking for identity and recognition. For many in the migrant community, the status symbols are a sign of 'I've made it': 'I've made it'. Özil grew up with nothing, managed to work his way up to become the best German footballer as the grandson of migrant workers and became world champion.
Arsène Wenger, Mesut Özil's coach at Arsenal FC, said in 2013: "If you see Mesut on the pitch and don't fall in love with him, you have no idea about soccer." Why has this magician fallen so low in Germany as a footballing country?
Behroz: From a human point of view, the photo with Turkish President Erdoğan and Özil's resignation from the national team in 2018 were of course responsible for the fall. It's a tragic story. There's someone who loves soccer, who has found a way to express himself in it, and this guy is suddenly caught up in the maelstrom of world politics. Soccer is so emotional and personal, you build up para-social relationships. Özil's resignation felt like a betrayal to many.
Mesut Özil, the victim?
Behroz: A footballer of his stature must of course be able to assess the whole thing. It's okay to criticize the photo and his crisis management. 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 is inexcusable. Many saw his misstep as an opportunity: 'Now I can finally say what I've always wanted to say'. Özil experienced a lot of racism during the debate.
Khattab: I asked one of our interviewees: 'Would the same thing have happened to Özil if he had been of Italian origin and had taken photos with Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime minister at the time, who was as questionably active in terms of human rights as Erdoğan? But he did in the 1960s. So it's about the status of the group with which Özil is read. As a musician or actor, he would have received backing in the same situation, but in soccer there is no lobby. It was one against all.
What happened in Germany at the time?
Khattab: We applied double standards. We canceled a soccer player for a photo with the same person with whom we have a pact to fend off refugees. Everyone had an opinion on Özil, no one had an opinion on our relationship with Erdoğan. I don't understand why the German criticism of Erdoğan, which has a basis, was directed at a footballer and not at those who are affected by it. Because, unlike Özil, politicians were well informed about Erdoğan from the very beginning.
Behroz: The moment was exploited to hold fake debates. When Özil left and the debate boiled over, there was no reappraisal. Looking back, it's totally crazy that Özil and İlkay Gündoğan even visited the German president. It sounded as if the two of them had to apologize to Germany. Mesut Özil is a German citizen, he does not forfeit his right to German citizenship because he takes a photo with Erdoğan.
A short time later, Özil and Erdoğan became increasingly close, with the Turkish president even becoming the footballer's best man.
Khattab: We forget one thing: we spoke to Mesut's father, Mustafa Özil, and he told us that he is an absolute opponent of Erdoğan. But when Erdoğan's brother was once a guest in Madrid and the two of them got into a fight, he was worried about whether he could continue to enter Turkey. In other words, we always ignore the fact that Özil had family in Turkey at the time and wanted to travel there or even live there. If this president with this reputation wants a photo, then you have to have some real chutzpah to turn it down.
Behroz: Özil's father also said: 'If Erdoğan wants to come to your wedding, then Erdoğan will come to your wedding.
Mustafa Özil and his son have gone their separate ways since 2013/14. How does he see Mesut going to Turkey?
Behroz: Özil's father didn't seem bitter despite the break-up, but was confident that he and his son would be in each other's arms again at some point. Mustafa Özil also said that he would not have handled Mesut Özil's resignation in such a way that things would have gone differently under him. He thinks his son was badly advised. In his opinion, the tweets about the resignation were inappropriate and he does not think Twitter is the right medium for a 'world footballer'. He said his son had been his son, but had completely ruined his career by going to Turkey and joining Erdoğan's club. The father even said it was a disgrace what Mesut Özil's career turned out to be in the end. He probably also wanted to get one over on his successor.
Khattab: Mustafa Özil even defended Germany from his son's accusations. He also said about Mesut that his son was never political until the break in 2014. Özil's former class teacher also confirmed this to us. From the father's point of view, Özil allowed himself to be instrumentalized.
Özil not only took refuge in the open arms of the Turkish president, but also in religion.
Behroz: That is typical of people who feel that they are not accepted. Özil has been very outspoken about his religion on social media since around 2014, although he has always been a devout Muslim.
Khattab: Özil has become a brand that uses social media to distance himself from the usual structures of the media and, above all, to present Islam to the outside world. He found his crowd there, which gave him an identity and to which he felt he belonged - and which he could pick up: 'Why should I play for Schalke fans in Germany when I can play for half the world if I make myself known as a devout Muslim?
Afterwards, Özil did not want to "just play", but also attracted attention with political statements on social media.
Behroz: Özil has a very selective way of expressing himself politically. As a devout Muslim, these are topics that really concern him, such as the imprisoned Uyghurs in China or the murdered Muslims in Hanau. These were big issues, just like Palestine now. You can't be surprised by that.
Khattab: What we as a society have made of footballers, that we put them on such a pedestal, is crazy. We actually only have female politicians and male professional footballers who represent Germany to the outside world. Everything the footballers say is put on the gold scale.
What do you think of his pro-Palestinian posts on the Gaza war?
Behroz: Özil sees children dying in Gaza and is a Muslim and makes a post about it. 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. But he did lament the victims on both sides on Instagram and didn't say any pro-Hamas things.
Özil did not directly condemn the Hamas attacks. Did your research and conversations reveal any indications as to whether Özil "only" means equal rights for all with "Free Palestine" or wants to deny Israel's right to exist?
Khattab: We didn't hear anything in the direction of anti-Semitism or pro-Israel.
Behroz: If he did, then he was speaking for and not against something.
Khattab: Except for the Uyghurs. There he actually took sides against the heads of government of Islamic countries.
In spring, Özil's fitness trainer published a photo of the ex-professional with a naked upper body. On Özil's left chest was a tattoo with the symbol of the Grey Wolves, a right-wing extremist Turkish organization that attacks Kurds, Jews and Armenians.
Behroz: We spoke to extreme Gray Wolves in Turkey, who dream of a Greater Turkish Empire. 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.
Khattab: We only got two reactions to the tattoo in all our conversations: First: 'So what?' Secondly: 'We don't believe him. He's not one of us'. What we do know: At the time of the tattoo, Özil no longer had an advisor. His father and other people we spoke to wondered where his people were who could advise him against it and worried that he might be extremely lonely.
Is Özil turning a blind eye to what the Grey Wolves stand for?
Khattab: Is Özil a blatant nationalist and racist? We don't know that. At least there are no signs of that in public. Apart from this tattoo, we haven't heard or found anything at all about Özil and the Grey Wolves in our conversations and research. Only he himself can explain it. His fitness coach wanted to talk to us first, but Özil probably intervened.
Behroz: Many also read Özil's tattoo as a middle finger to Germany. Others say it's a cry for belonging: it's not a small tattoo on his arm, but a huge one on his heart.
Erdoğan's AKP party has been in an electoral alliance with the far-right, ultra-nationalist and EU-sceptic MHP, which is considered the political arm of the Grey Wolves, since 2018.
Behroz: But the extreme Gray Wolves we spoke to don't like Erdoğan at all. So that makes things complicated for Özil. Without wanting to relativize it, the Grey Wolves have a wide range of meanings in Turkey: extremists who want to destroy the Kurds, blatant nationalists and simply proud Turks.
Nevertheless, Özil should have reconsidered whether he wanted to be placed in this context. It's just like when you see Reichsbürger demonstrating next to you at coronavirus demonstrations or people shouting "Kill Israel" next to you at pro-Palestinian freedom demonstrations. Is that good for your cause?
Özil should know: For a Kurdish person, the Gray Wolves are never a good thing.
Khattab: The range is of course from light gray to dark black. These guys are definitely not without their flaws. In the conversations with the wolves, pure hatred towards the Arab minority was particularly noticeable. Sentences were said that could have been uttered one-to-one at the AfD regulars' table. In Özil's case, it is probably more of a nationalist than a fascist statement. Which is not read negatively in his pro-Erdoğan bubble.
David Bedürftig spoke with Khesrau Behroz and Karim Khattab
The Gray Wolves, a right-wing extremist Turkish organization, laughed at Mesut Özil's tattoo of their symbol on his chest.
Mesut Özil's father, Mustafa Özil, expressed concern about how his son's ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan might affect their ability to travel to Turkey.
During the Israel-Gaza war, Mesut Özil spoke out in support of Palestine, which sparked controversy and criticism in Germany.
In 2018, Mesut Özil resigned from the German national soccer team, citing discrimination and racism, and joined the Turkish national team.
After his resignation, Mesut Özil was criticized for his relationship with Erdoğan and his support for the Turkish president's policies, including his treatment of Kurds and critics.
Mesut Özil's former coach at Arsenal FC, Arsène Wenger, stated that Özil was one of the best soccer players he had ever seen.
During the debate over Özil's resignation, there was a spike in racist comments and incidents directed towards Özil, both online and in stadiums.
Source: www.ntv.de
