Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has slammed Mesut Ozil following his decision to stop playing for Germany, saying “he’s been playing dirt for years”. The Arsenal midfielder announced on Sunday he would “no longer be playing for Germany” after accusing German FA (DFB) officials of racism.
Ozil – who was born in Germany but has Turkish heritage – has been the subject of criticism in Germany after posing for a photograph with Turkish president Recep Erdogan before the World Cup. Germany went on to exit the tournament at the group stage – with Ozil being dropped for the second game – and now Hoeness has launched a scathing attack on the 29-year-old.
The former West Germany international said: “I’m glad it is over. He’s been playing dirt for years. He last won a tackle before the 2014 World Cup. And now he hides himself and his c*** performance behind this photo.
“His 35 million follower boys, who of course do not exist in the real world, think he has played excellently if he plays a cross to a man.”
Hoeness also revealed that Bayern target Ozil – who has only been on the winning side twice in 17 matches against the German giants – whenever they play Arsenal.
“Whenever we played against Arsenal, we played over him, because we know he’s the weak point”, he said.
“For me, having a picture with President Erdogan wasn’t about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country,” Ozil said in his statement after he announced his retirement.”My job is a football player and not a politician, and our meeting was not an endorsement of any policies. The treatment I have received from the DFB (German Football Association) and many others makes me no longer want to wear the German national team shirt.I feel unwanted and think what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten.”
“People with racially discriminative backgrounds should not be allowed to work in the largest football federation in the world that has players from dual-heritage families. Attitudes like theirs simply do not reflect the players they supposedly represent.It is with a heavy heart and after much consideration that because of recent events, I will no longer be playing for Germany at international level whilst I have this feeling of racism and disrespect.I used to wear the German shirt with such pride and excitement, but now I don’t. The decision has been extremely difficult to make because I have always given everything for my teammates, the coaching staff and the good people of Germany.
“When high-ranking DFB officials treat me as they did, disrespect my Turkish roots and selfishly turn me into political propaganda, then enough is enough. That is not why I play football, and I will not sit back and do nothing about it. Racism should never, ever be accepted.” Ozil blamed the German Football Federation (DFB) for failing to defend him against his most strident critics and singled out mistreatment from DFB president Richard Grindel as the most frustrating issue.
“Arguably the issue that has frustrated me the most over the past couple of months has been the mistreatment from the DFB, and in particular the DFB President Richard Grindel,” he said.”Whilst I attempted to explain to Grindel my heritage, ancestry and therefore reasoning behind the photo, he was far more interested in speaking about his own political views and belittling my opinion.
I will no longer stand for being a scapegoat for his (Grindel’s) incompetence and inability to do his job properly.” Ozil was a member of the Germany side that won the World Cup in 2014 and has been voted Germany’s national team player of the year on five separate occasions.
He also claimed he was being blamed for Germany’s disappointing World Cup.In May, Ozil was criticised after being photographed with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a London event. Ozil attended the event with fellow Germany international Ilkay Gundogan. Both Ozil and Manchester City’s Gundogan are of Turkish descent.
Ozil says he and Gundogan talked about football with the president.Afterwards, photographs were released by Turkey’s governing AK Party in the build-up to elections in the country, which Erdogan won outright. Many German politicians questioned Ozil and Gundogan’s loyalty to German democratic values. Germany has previously criticised the Turkish leader’s crackdown on political dissent following a failed coup. Ozil said he would have been “disrespecting his ancestors’ roots” had he not posed for photographs with the Turkish president.
He added that he and his family had received hate mail, threatening phone calls and comments on social media.