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Tag: Mesut Ozil

  • Mesut Ozil completes move to Fenerbahce

    Mesut Ozil completes move to Fenerbahce

    Germany’s 2014 FIFA World Cup winner Mesut Ozil completed his switch to Turkey’s Fenerbahce from Arsenal on Sunday, having been frozen out by the English Premier League (EPL) club.

    Fenerbahce said the 32-year-old had agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal in Istanbul after moving without a fee.

    The playmaker signed for the London club from Real Madrid in a big-money move in 2013, but he struggled in recent years with the Gunners and has not played since March.

    Ozil was left out of their Premier League squad this season but he continued to give them prominent backing on social media.

    “Hearing my name chanted around the Emirates [Stadium] will forever give me goosebumps, and the memories I’ve made putting on this jersey will stick with me for life,” Ozil wrote on Twitter, calling Arsenal a club of “class and prestige.”

    He acknowledged the last months “haven’t been the easiest” and that in life “things do not always play out how we expect or want them to.”

    Last week, Fenerbahce sent out a tweet with photographs of Ozil stepping off a private jet and wearing a club scarf.

    Ozil, of Turkish descent, retired from Germany duty in 2018 after a furore over him being photographed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The 32-year-old had helped Germany win the 2014 World Cup but his career has nosedived since.

  • Ozil: I’ll soon join Fenerbahce

    Ozil: I’ll soon join Fenerbahce

    Germany World Cup winner Mesut Ozil said on Sunday he was on the verge of signing for Turkey’s Fenerbahce from Arsenal, having been frozen out by the English Premier League club.

    The playmaker signed for Arsenal from Real Madrid in a big-money move in 2013.

    But he has often flattered to deceive for the Londoners, with coach Mikel Arteta not picking him since March.

    His contract was due to run out in June and no details of the Fenerbahce deal have been announced.

    He however told Turkey’s NTV that he was “very happy, very excited” to be signing for Fenerbahce.

    Media reports have said he was in Istanbul for a medical.

    Ozil, of Turkish descent, retired from Germany duty in 2018 after a furore over him being photographed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    The 32-year-old had helped Germany win the 2014 World Cup, but his career has nosedived since.

  • Ozil showers praise on Arsenal youngster

    Ozil showers praise on Arsenal youngster

    Mesut Ozil has heaped praise on Arsenal youngster Emile Smith Rowe.

    The 20-year-old has drawn comparisons to Ozil after bursting onto the scene with his creativity and poise in recent weeks.

    The absence of Ozil – who was left out of the Premier League and Europa League squads – has given Smith Rowe a chance to shine.

    But the veteran German is hardly bitter about the early success of his young teammate.

    “He made the difference in the last couple of games as a No.10,” Ozil said during a question and answer session on Twitter.

    “Really happy for him… and that he showed that playing with a No.10 still can make sense in today’s football.”

  • Ozil willing to slash pay-off in Arsenal exit talks

    Ozil willing to slash pay-off in Arsenal exit talks

    Arsenal outcast Mesut Ozil is prepared to leave Emirates this month.

    The Sun says Ozil will offer Arsenal the chance to get him out of the club this month – by spreading payment of the rest of his contract over the next three years.

    Ozil has options to leave the Emirates during the transfer window but the Gunners would need to cough up the remainder of his £350,000-a-week deal which still has six months to run.

    The World Cup winner is in no mood to sacrifice the remaining £8.75million of the wages due to him just so Arsenal can get him off their wage bill with Fenerbahce and DC United both interested in his signature.

    But he would be prepared to help the club out.

    That would be by reaching a deal which would see them reduce their weekly payments to him to £68,000 until the summer of 2023.

  • Transfer: Ozil reaches agreement with Fenerbahce to leave Arsenal

    Transfer: Ozil reaches agreement with Fenerbahce to leave Arsenal

    Fenerbahce will sign German midfielder, Mesut Ozil from Arsenal for three and a half years for an undisclosed fee, according to media report in Turkey on Wednesday.

    The report says Ozil and the club have agreed on the transfer in principle and the 32-year-old would join the former Turkish champions later in January.

    Fenerbahce Chairman, Ali Koc, said previously that signing Ozil, who has Turkish ancestry, was a “nice dream” for the club, who have suffered from financial woes in recent years.

    Koc had said Fenerbahce would need to offload players to make any transfers in January.

    Ozil fuelled rumours about a move to Fenerbahce with an Instagram post about Istanbul on Tuesday.

    The German has not played for Arsenal since March 2020 and was not named in the squad list for the first half of the current Premier League season.

    He has long been linked with a move to Fenerbahce, Turkey’s second most decorated club.

    Ozil, who is one of the highest-paid players at Arsenal, is out of contract at the end of the season.

    Arsenal FC is looking to offload players in January to trim the squad.

    Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, had said last week the club would wait for the January transfer window to make a final call about Ozil.

    Arsenal are currently 11th in the standings on 23 points, while Fenerbahce are fifth in Turkey’s top tier Super Lig on 29 points, two behind league leaders Gaziantep.

  • Ljungberg to Arteta: Mesut Ozil should be playing

    Ljungberg to Arteta: Mesut Ozil should be playing

    Arsenal great Freddie Ljungberg believes Mesut Ozil should still be for the Gunners.

    Ozil’s time at Arsenal appears to be up, with his contract expiring at the end of the season, and not being registered for the Premier League nor Europa League.

    But Ljungberg told the Athletic: “Mesut is a great football player, we know that. We all have different opinions and everybody needs to accept that people have different opinions.

    “For me, maybe the way football has gone now sometimes he’s not as athletic defensively. Let’s say when you play Man City you don’t have the ball and need to just run after them, maybe you need more athletic players.

    “What I tried to do, what I believed in, was that when you play teams who, on paper, you’re a bigger club than or you think they’ll have a low block and you need someone to unlock it, Mesut has the total quality to do that. I think there is a space for a player like that in those kinds of games.

    “But then as well you need to have a communication with the player — not just Mesut, every player. Different games suit certain players and other games suit others.

    “The days of playing every single minute of every game maybe are just not happening that often anymore. When I left in the summer he was in the squads and now he’s not. What’s happened there, I can’t answer.

    “I don’t know if something else has happened, I have no clue. But if you look at pure football qualities, I think my answer is quite obvious.

    “When I was interim coach, I would play him in the games when I thought he could unlock defences, even if I knew his defensive job was not as good as some other players.

    “So that’s my opinion; there should be a space in certain games.”

  • Mesut Ozil agent hits back at Arteta

    Mesut Ozil agent hits back at Arteta

    The agent of Mesut Ozil has accused Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta of lacking loyalty.

    Ozil’s agent Erkut Sogut says the manager has treated the midfielder unfairly and has not been honest about his decision to freeze him out of Arsenal’s Europa League and Premier League squads.

    He said: “Arsenal fans deserve an honest explanation, not [Arteta] saying ‘I failed Ozil’. You didn’t fail Ozil: you failed to be fair, honest and transparent and treat someone with respect who has a contract and was loyal all the time.

    “Every single person outside knows he hasn’t treated him fairly. He didn’t give him a chance to show himself this season. If he is still under contract, the player should have the option to stay and fight for his place. Mesut hasn’t been given that. Why would you put a player on the bench twice for 90 minutes [against Brighton and Crystal Palace in June] if he wasn’t fit or committed?

    “Everyone says he’s training well. Per Mertesacker said this publicly. I spoke with at least five team-mates who say he is training great. They say Mesut is one of their best players, and they cannot understand why he is left out. So it can’t be the training – if it is not the pitch, what are the footballing reasons? If you talk, you should tell the truth that the Arsenal fans deserve otherwise don’t talk at all.”

    Sogut contrasted Arteta’s treatment of Ozil with the way he was looked after by Arsene Wenger during his time at the Emirates, highlighting how the Spaniard didn’t start a single Premier League game in his final season.

    “He [Arteta] started zero games in the Premier League in his last season,” said Sogut.

    “He wasn’t there in the last six months at all, busy doing his coaching badges and meeting coaches for his future. Mesut plays for one English team and that’s it because he feels he can only play for that team. He is a Gunner in the end.

    “Mesut is not a player who is yesterday a Toffee and today a Gunner. Arteta didn’t play at all in the final two years, but they still registered him because he was given a contract. Arsene Wenger put him on the field for the final two minutes of his last game just to give him a nice moment, even though he wasn’t fit for months. Look at how [Arteta] was treated in his final two years, and how Mesut is getting treated in his final year.”

  • Ozil lands massive ‘loyalty bonus’ at Arsenal

    Ozil lands massive ‘loyalty bonus’ at Arsenal

    Mesut Ozil has earned a massive loyalty bonus at Arsenal.

    The Athletic says Özil was paid a loyalty bonus amounting to £8million at the end of September.

    The north London club splashed the cash to land Özil from Real Madrid back in 2013, when he signed a long term deal for a £42.5million fee.

    He signed a new contract in January 2018 until the summer of 2021, making him the club’s highest earner on £350,000-a-week.

    And it has now emerged the deal included a lucrative loyalty bonus in a bid to convince him to stay for the entirety of the contract.

  • Arsenal chief reveals how he told Ozil about Europa League axe

    Arsenal chief reveals how he told Ozil about Europa League axe

    After Mesut Ozil’s snub from the Europa League squad, Arsenal chief Edu has revealed of how he broke the news to the midfielder and Sokratis that they wouldn’t be registered for the competition.

    Edu and manager Mikel Arteta organised face-to-face meetings with the out of favour duo to explain why they were not in the club’s 25-man Uefa squad.

    Edu said: “We needed to manage the number of foreign players in the squad because we are only allowed to have 17 on our list.

    “I talked to Mikel about the players who were probably going to be left out and we discussed how to treat that challenging situation.

    “The way we did it was to sit down with the players concerned and to be open with them and I also spoke to their agents.

    “The only way to do that was face-to-face and to clearly explain why Mikel has made that decision. And I think we did it quite well.”

  • Arsenal to terminate Ozil contract after Europa snub

    Arsenal to terminate Ozil contract after Europa snub

    Arsenal are planning a new attempt to terminate the contract of midfielder, Mesut Ozil.

    The Daily Mail says the Gunners are to re-open talks with Ozil ahead of the January transfer window over ending his £350,000-per-week contract early.

    The Gunners, it is understood, approached Ozil about reaching a settlement agreement for the final nine months of his contract over the past fortnight but the attempts proved unsuccessful.

    Ozil is said to want virtually all the remaining £13million on his deal.

    The Gunners are ready to make another offer to the World Cup winner with a view to removing him from their wage bill in January.

    The prospect of Ozil playing much first-team football before then looks remote.

    UEFA have already confirmed the German’s omission from Arsenal’s Europa League squad while Ozil is expected to be left out of the club’s 25-man Premier League party.