Mesut Ozil Profile

Mesut Ozil is a creative midfielder who plays for Turkish Super Lig side Fenerbahce and has made over 90 appearances for the German national team.

After starting his career at Schalke 04, Ozil made his name at Werder Bremen where he claimed 15 assists and won the DFB-Pokal in his first season.

After impressive individual performances, Ozil moved to Real Madrid in 2010 for €15million. He made 105 appearances in all competitions for Los Blancos and played a huge part in the club winning the 2011/12 La Liga title.

Ozil was ranked first in league assists for three straight seasons at Madrid, and in 2013 was included in the UEFA Team of the Year.

In September 2013, he moved to Arsenal for a club-record fee believed to be around £42.5million. In his first season at the club, Arsenal ended their nine-year trophy drought with an FA Cup win and Ozil became the fastest player to reach 50 assists in Premier League history.

After falling out of favour at Arsenal, Ozil joined Turkish side Fenerbahce on a free transfer in January 2021.

Ozil made 92 appearances for Germany and featured in five major tournaments. He was the leading assist maker in the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, where his country reached the semi-final on both occasions.

The midfielder was instrumental to Germany's World Cup success in 2014 but just four years later, he decided to retire from international duty due to mistreatment from the German Football Association.

Ozil signed for Real Madrid in August 2010 and his debut season saw him finish the 2010/11 La Liga campaign with 25 assists to his name - the highest from any player in Europe's major competitions that season.

He helped Madrid win their 18th Copa Del Rey title, as they beat rivals Barcelona in the final.

The midfielder kept his crown of being La Liga's top assist provider in 2011/12, with 17, and then made it a third straight season as the league's assist leader the following year, as he produced 26.

In the 2011/12 campaign, Ozil helped Madrid clinch a record 32nd La Liga title. The German's two goals in the final game of the season ensured Real would be the first team in Spanish top flight history to reach 100 points in a single season.

Ozil was included in the 2012 UEFA Team of the Year and was voted 10th in the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. In his last season at Madrid, he won the Supercopa de Espana.

Ozil struck up a deadly partnership with superstar Cristiano Ronaldo while they were at Madrid. Ozil assisted Ronaldo 31 times, with Ronaldo returning the favour on seven occasions.

The pair unlocked numerous defences together and Ozil has said that the frontman helped him become a better player. Madrid's decision to sell Ozil to Arsenal angered fans and players, including Ronaldo.

"The sale of Ozil is very bad news for me," Ronaldo told the Independent. "He was the player who best knew my moves in front of goal. I'm angry about Ozil leaving."

In September 2013, Ozil signed for Arsenal on a five-year contract for a club-record transfer fee of £42.5million. A deal which made him the most expensive German soccer player at the time.

Ozil was keen to work with Arsene Wenger and said that he was a big reason why he moved to the North London club. When Wenger left the club in 2018, Ozil told Sky Sports: "He's the main reason I came here, he convinced me and I am proud to have played under him. He is an honest guy, a very respectful guy, has a good personality, and everybody wants to play under him."

During Ozil's first season, Arsenal beat Hull City in the 2014 FA Cup final, which ended a nine-year wait for a trophy.

In his second season, a knee injury kept Ozil out of action for three months, however, he scored and provided two assists as Arsenal eased past Aston Villa, to secure back-to-back FA Cup titles.

The 2015/16 campaign was a successful one for the German as he was voted Arsenal's Player of the Season and was the Premier League's top assist provider (19).

The following year, Ozil won Arsenal's Goal of the Season award in October 2016, when his brilliant solo goal against Ludogorets ensured a 3-2 victory.

Ozil signed a new three-year deal in early 2018, making him Arsenal's highest-paid player in the club's history. But his form dipped and he was left out of the Arsenal squad for several matches after his relationship with manager Unai Emery weakened.

Despite the arrival of new manager Mikel Arteta, Ozil was omitted from the 25-man squad for the 2020/21 Premier League season, leaving him eligible to only play in Arsenal's U-23 squad.

Even though Ozil was left out of the squad, he still offered to pay the full salary of Jerry Quy, who is Gunnersaurus, the club mascot. Gunnersaurus was one of 55 redundancies Arsenal made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unable to break back into the Arsenal first-team squad, Ozil joined Fenerbahce in January 2021.

Heading into the 2014 World Cup, Ozil was Germany's top goalscorer with eight goals in the qualifying campaign. He started in all seven of his country's games at the World Cup, scoring in the 2-1 Round-of-16 victory against Algeria.

Despite only managing one goal and one assist throughout the tournament, Ozil concluded the competition with the most successful passes in the final third (171) and was joint-second behind Lionel Messi for chances created (17).

On beating Argentina in the final, Germany became the first European team to win the World Cup in South America.

Ozil was the joint-highest assist maker with three at Euro 2012 and was included in the UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament. His standout performance came against Greece in the quarter-final. Providing two assists and making nine key passes, Ozil put in a man-of-the-match performance to help Germany cruise to a 4-2 victory.

The 2016 Euros saw him play every minute of Germany's six games. Ozil registered one assist against Ukraine in his side's opening game and scored against Italy in the quarter-final.

Although he has won the German Player of the Year award five times, Ozil decided to retire from the national side in May 2018. This was due to what he felt was mistreatment from the German Football Association (DFB) after Ozil posed for a picture with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoayan. Former DFB president Reinhard Grinde wanted him to apologise for the photo op after it caused a storm in the German Press.

Ozil married former Miss Turkey, Amine Gulse, in January 2019. Together, they have a daughter called Eda.

In 2009, he dated German model Anna-Maria Ferchichi, but they separated in 2010. Ozil was with singer Mandy Capristo for only a year until they broke up in October 2014. They got back together in 2015 but eventually parted for good in 2017.

Ozil is the youngest of four and was born into a working-class family, with his grandparents migrating from Turkey to Germany. He has two sisters, Dugyu and Nese, and an older brother called Mutlu.

His father, Mustafa, was a metal worker before Ozil made it as a professional. Reports suggested Ozil's father filed a civil case against him in 2014 because he removed Mustafa as the director of his marketing company.

The midfielder is a devout Muslim and before every game he recites from the Quran. Ozil tries to observe fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan, on days when it's possible. In May 2016, he went on the Umrah pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.

In December 2019, Ozil took to Twitter to write a poem which denounced the treatment of Uyghurs in China. He was also critical of Muslim countries not speaking about the Xinjiang re-education camps and Arsenal for distancing themselves from the issue.

According to Forbes, Ozil's net worth is $28.7million. He is ranked 49th on Forbes' list of The World's-Highest Paid Athletes in 2020.

As of May 2020, Ozil is sponsored by Adidas, Beats Electronic and Mercedes-Benz. From his endorsement deals, he receives $5.5million.

In 2018, Ozil founded esports team M10 eSports.