While Florentino Perez was unveiling Gareth Bale, Thousands of fans who gathered in the Bernabeu stadium to greet Bale began to chant ‘Ozil no se vende’ (‘Ozil is not for sale!’) at Perez. Such was the impact of the player on his exit from Madrid, who was also their Top Assist provider for the season.
Mesut Ozil joined Arsenal in 2013 as the most expensive German player and suddenly there was a lot of excitement in the Premier League for the player who used to share the dressing room with Ronaldo. For the past few seasons, Mesut had been one of the top assist providers in the game and this was one of the first times that a Superstar was coming to Arsenal from a big team rather than leaving.
A Ballon d’Or nominee and member of the UEFA Team of the Year, Fans were taken back to the invincible Days.
Ozil on his part never disappointed. Perfect through-balls, sleek Assists, close control, and the vision to find the best attack opportunity was embedded in the DNA of the German Maestro.
Providing 13 assists in the in his Debut season with an off form attack did speak volumes of his abilities and when combined with Alexis Sanches, he did provide 20 assists in a season.
And this is excluding the numerous goalscoring chances that he created regularly.
And now, after all these years of service, while also winning 3 FA cups with arsenal, Former Team mate-Manager Arteta decided not to include Ozil in any of the fixtures after football was resumed post-COVID suspension. Ozil did not even travel with the team to the FA cup finals.
And all of this is believed to have happened because Ozil refused a 12.5% pay cut on his reduction on his £350,000-a-week wages.
The player has defended his refusal for the pay-cut by maintaining that “there is no transparency about the financial details and there has been some internal agenda against him”.
Arteta, who always Sang praises of the Midfielder, is yet to address the problem properly.
Some suggest that the Kroenke’s ownership is yet to be blamed. If one is to talk with regards to club financial woes and the axing of the 55 workers, the let it be known that the owners are worth around 8 billion and
any debt that arsenal holds is not even 0.8% of their total worth.
Apparently, the Top GUYS don’t like to be resisted and that is exactly what Ozil did and now he is bearing the burnt for it.
Mesut Ozil is 31 currently and might have a few quality performances in him. If used wisely, his combination with Aubameyang can be a deadly threat to any defense in the world.
Author: Hamzah Mattoo has been following football religiously ever since the FIFA world cup 2006, when he was 7 years old and now after missing the chance to make a career in football, has decided to contribute through his words.
Creative Writer at Headkick.co
