Mesut Özil has quit international football announcing his retirement from the German national team citing discrimination and undeserved racism as the cause.
The 29-year old posted a lengthy note on Twitter, where he has directly called out the president of the German football association (DFB), Reinhard Grindel. “I do not feel accepted in German society, despite paying taxes, donating to good causes there and being a World Cup winner,” he said. “I am a German when we win, an immigrant when we lose.”
The Arsenal midfielder is a third-generation Turkish-German, born in Gelsenkirchen and has been an important player for the German team since joining in 2009. He has 92 caps playing for his national team and has been named the German player of the year five out of the last seven times losing out to Kimmich most recently and Kroos in 2014.
The racist remarks against him intensified after being photographed with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at an event held in London in the month of May, followed by Germany’s poor performance in the recent World Cup. Özil’s three-part statement also mentions the innumerable hate messages and mails he received from German fans threatening him and his family. “I refuse to be used as a political tool or bear disrespect towards my family or my roots,” the player said.
The situation is quite grave, Özil being the second footballer to quit international football owing to racist comments and hate messages after Azmoun, in the span of a few weeks. Twitter is coming out strongly in support of the footballer’s cause. There has been no official statement from the German football federation yet.
