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jenny_jenkinsOf Clubs, Girlfriends, Tabloids and Goals - The Political Evolution of Mesut Ozil
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jenny_jenkins
Mesut is heading back to Germany to play against Italy in Dortmund on Wednesday. To mark the occasion, I would like to bring you a brief history, in two parts, of the political evolution of Mesut Özil.
Sugar and spice and everything nice (rose-water, cardamom, and gum-Arabic): it all goes into making Turkish Delight.
The raw material may be from the Black Sea region, but Mesut Özil was “Made in Germany” before being marked for exclusive export to Spain.
The grandchild of Turkish guest-workers in Germany (his grandfather worked in a metals mine in the Ruhr), Mesut Özil has three generations of his family in Germany – as he is fond of reminding us. He was born there, he grew up there, he went to school there, and all his friends are there. He learned how to kick a ball there, and played in all the youth teams.
The (yellow) apartment block Mesut grew up in.
He has, to use his own words, the technique and feeling for the ball of a Turkish player and the hard-working, never-give-up attitude of a German. He brings a “playfulness” to the German game, according to the always eloquent Sami Khedira. He has style and is the ‘number ten’ that the team has been waiting for for years, according to his erstwhile captain Michael Ballack. Franz Beckenbauer and Horst Hrubesch (his admiring U-21 coach) have called him “the German Messi.”
Mesut, holding the ball on the extreme right.
But there is nothing, on the face of it, that would mark Mesut Özil out as the point man in the integration debate. He’s shy. He’s quiet. He dislikes talking about his family. And of the 23 German National Team members who made it to South Africa with him, 11 had some immigrant roots in their backgrounds. Sami Khedira is half-Tunisian. Dennis Aogo comes of a Nigerian family. Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski were born in Poland. Mesut’s close friend from Werder Bremen, Marko Marin, is of Serbian background.
What is it then that makes Mesut the one who receives the Bambi award for being a model of “Gelungene Integration” [successful integration]?
Sami Khedira was recently asked about this by the German news magazine “Der Spiegel”. His theory is that Mesut’s play is rather spectacular – it is something that draws the eye, in other words.
My own theory is rather different. I think Mesut’s role in the team was always going to be prominent because of a minor scandal in his early playing career, and his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, which brought him a great deal of tabloid attention he wouldn’t otherwise have received. These two things will be the focus of this portion of the article before we come to the minor scandal of the Bambi award and the infamous Angela Merkel photograph following the Germany-Turkey game (which will be the focus of part II of this article.)
________________________________________
Mesut and Schalke FC - From the Stories of the Brothers Grimm
The Evil Club and the Little Boy that Could
Once upon a time, when Ozil was very small...
...Actually, he was rather small. Still is as it happens. 182 centimetres of slender frame is rather delicate for a footballer...but I digress...
...The myth goes that Mourinho first got a look at our Ozil after being sacked from his position at Chelsea. He naturally tuned in to watch "his team" play Schalke in the Champions League and there was a clever 17 year-old lad playing (who must have been quite obvious with blonde and red streaks in his hair - our Mesut had not yet acquired a more sophisticated style) who needed to be subbed out at the 59th minute after taking a knock. Mourinho, the story goes, made a note of the name and something along the lines of "buy this kid as soon as possible" because of course, The Special One may have been temporarily unemployed but he knew another club would come begging for his services soon. Mesut didn't have the obvious talent that Messi or Rooney had at 17, but he was intelligent, calm and had a raw quality that Mourinho recognized at once. Mesut had probably just changed his future without knowing it!
Anyway, at around the same time, Schalke - which had the benefit of watching Mesut play or train every day of the week and not just on TV - noticed they had a jewel on their hands, so they wanted Mesut to sign a contract extension. He refused, considering the terms that were offered unacceptable. His father said that his son would be at Real Madrid "within 3 years" - such was his quality. The club found this laughable and ground their heels in. Mesut ground his heels in. The club benched him - doubtless thinking that Mesut would give in - he was 17 after all, and what boy wouldn't sign to be able to play? Mesut declared he wanted to leave. The club retaliated by putting an impossible price on his head – 7 million Euros – and declaring he wouldn’t ever play for the club again – ever!
The club lost this particular battle of wills, and Mesut became the most expensive 18 year-old player in German history to that point when he sold for around 4.5 million Euros to Werder Bremen.
Happily as we know, we all lived happily ever after. Mesut signed with Werder Bremen and chalked up 9 goals and 17 assists in his final year there (the club has been distinctly unhappy and unlucky ever since he left). He was called up for the youth teams and was the star player in Germany's final win in the U-21 - which was practically the Mesut Ozil-show. His club strengthened him up and he began to be able to play nearly a whole game. He became the break-out star in a very talented and adorable team of youngsters at the World Cup (which took more than luck, but made everyone really happy)...
...Mourinho came to Real Madrid, found out the kid he'd noted as a prospect was for sale for very little with a year left on his contract.
...and he’s at Madrid now! Our lovely young man, scoring his lovely goals – kicking his team into a Clasico against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey Final in April!
And we all lived, more or less, happily and luckily ever after...
________________________________________
...So why is this story important? Well, for fans, it was probably the first time they ever heard of Mesut Özil. The expensive teenager with the difficult father.
It was his first experience with notoriety.
There is still some prejudice against Mesut and his father (who told the negotiators that his son would be at Real Madrid within three years - a true story!) among more traditional National Team fans. He was labelled as having a "bad attitude" and his father, in particular, was blamed. Schalke fans, too, seem unusually unable to let it go, even four years later – in marked contrast to Werder Bremen fans, who seem, as a group, to only want to wish him well in spite of his absence marking a distinct decline in the team’s ability to create goals and a week-in-week-out flirtation with relegation.
But more to the point, there may have been a tinge of unthinking racism about the whole thing. He wasn't a German International yet, remember. He was the upstart child of a "pushy immigrant" – worse, a “pushy working-class immigrant” - a label his father (who has been in Germany since he was two years old – making him about as German as Lukas Podolski) has never been able to shake off.
Well, parents have to look after their children - especially parents with the sense to realize that their child has the quality to play in a big club.
And Mesut’s self-possession and sense of self-worth is what makes him special. Not many 21 year olds arrive in Madrid and declare that they aren’t afraid of the competition for a starting place because “I know what I can do.” There’s nothing so unattractive as false-modesty, and nothing is so attractive as self-confidence that is grounded in reality.
________________________________________
Mesut’s Angel
Mesut with the very vivacious Anna-Maria
In an article after the U-21 championship, an unusually empathetic German journalist noted that Mesut Özil, who was visited by his family after the victory over England, lived all alone in a flat in the wealthy part of Bremen. He had no visitors aside from the cleaning lady who arrived once a week to dust. He was lacking “nest-warmth” – to use the precise phrase.
As it happens, Mesut wouldn’t be alone for long, in fact, depending on who you believe, he was already, secretly, attached – to a slightly older woman and her small child. At any rate, Mesut and his girlfriend made their first public appearance after a quiet few months together during a formal event for his club in the summer of 2009.
And as far as the German tabloids (who are perpetually obsessed with National Footballers) were concerned, you couldn’t possibly have made this woman up. It was a case of life being stranger than fiction.
Anna-Maria is the twice-married (but only once divorced) sister of pop-singer Sarah Connor – and the fans and the press have a mixed relationship with her. She elicits strong opinions. Some considered her an unattractive gold-digger. Others pointed out that she comes from a fairly wealthy family, which made gold-digging unnecessary, and that she was only 26 when they met – hardly “old” by any stretch of the imagination. In the tabloids she was usually referred to as a “beauty” and a "head-turner" - which she plainly is. "Charming" and "sweet" are other common descriptors. She had dated (and married) other footballers before.
She has spunk. She has a tattoo of her second husband’s name around her wrist. She's independent –the only WAG to ship herself off to South Africa before the knock-out rounds began – every other WAG waited for the DFB to book their flights for them – and Mesut had to ask National Team Captain Loew for special permission to visit her after the game against Australia. In footage taken after his screamer of a goal against Ghana, he can be seen looking up into the stands for her while being swamped by his teammates – since his family wasn’t there, he was plainly looking for her.
Well, opposites attract. It isn’t hard to see why a vivacious, charming, sweet, slightly over-the-top woman with a cute child would attract a Nest-warmth-lacking-Mesut – living alone in a flat in the wealthy part of Bremen with no one but his cleaning lady for company.
More than anything else though, it was the contrast of a charming head-turner and a rather shy boy - how could the tabloids resist? And then the news broke: Anna-Maria had converted to Islam (so that they could marry when her divorce came through) and was no longer eating pork! What was more, she had taken on a new nickname “Melek” – which means “angel”.
The tabloids were all over the whole thing when the story broke immediately following the quarter-final against England. “Mesut And His Angel”. “What Will Happen if Our World Cup Star Marries His Angel?” ran the headline in Bild Zeitung. But there were some odd moments in the hysterical coverage that followed. Naturally, a national team player that has rescued his team from the ignominy of an early exit and who has just helped destroy England 4-1 isn’t going to get much criticism – but there was already a trend in the coverage. Mesut doesn’t discuss his private life, so Bild, for example, was reduced to taking statements Mesut had made in the past (“going shopping – no, it’s not something I like to do”) and tried to fashion a story about it. Anna-Maria was suddenly being described as someone who would be keeping his house (the religious connotation was clear) like a good little Muslim. She had recently dyed her hair dark. Plainly, this must be because Mesut wanted her to do this!
The fact that she continued to dress the same way, and is plainly the type of woman who has never in her life done a thing she didn’t want to do – with all the self-confidence of one of the youngest in a huge family of some 8 siblings – that didn’t fit into the tabloid narrative.
And when she left, after finding that the press attention and loneliness away from her family in Madrid was too much for her, the press constructed another narrative. It was the play-station! Obviously! And Orange-Fanta! With nothing to go on except for Anna-Maria’s “no we didn’t argue, Mesut Özil is a wonderful person – this life [as the wife of a football star] just isn’t for me” and Mesut’s “I don’t discuss my private life” – the tabloids took a number of disparate known facts – Mesut’s weakness for his play-station (direct quote: “out of 100 games, I normally win 99”) and his weakness for Orange-Fanta and decided that plainly, that must have been the reason she left. He spent all his time on the play-station drinking Orange-Fanta! And the tattoo of her husband’s name – obviously, he must have objected to this!
Mesut, with his favourite hobby!
“Was She Too Wild For Our Good Özil?” ran the headline in Bild.
That the articles were picked up in the foreign press and not examined very critically before being translated into English and Spanish didn’t really help. There wasn’t a single direct quote in any of them – both having refused to comment - but it didn’t matter. He was now pegged as an Orange-Fanta and play-station addict.
________________________________________
Quick – what’s the name of Miroslav Klose’s wife? Who’s Sami Khedira’s ex-girlfriend? You didn’t know, did you? And as it happens, you’ll have to look it up yourselves, because I can’t remember off-hand either.
He may be the “Shyest of Our Stars” according to Zeit Online – with a style of football that is “delicate, fragile, thoughtful and divine” but the attention Mesut gets when he scores against Turkey, or when he is photographed with Angela Merkel, or when he receives an award for “Successful Integration” – or that he even receives such an award - can’t be divorced from these two incidents in his life. For better or worse, he’s a press darling. He’s everything they could want. He’s the attractive, shy, talented kid with the faintly odd relationship with a glamorous socialite and a minor club-fracas in his past. He’s one of the “Royals” – as Madrid’s players are referred to in Germany – but it took more than talent to get him this kind of attention.
____________________________________________
Part II – Of Bambi Awards, Photographs And Whistling Concerts - which will get to the heart of the current political storm, the Germany-Turkey game, the infamous Angela Merkel photograph, and the inexplicable award for "successful integration" will follow in a couple of days.
By
jenny_jenkinsPart I
Mesut is heading back to Germany to play against Italy in Dortmund on Wednesday. To mark the occasion, I would like to bring you a brief history, in two parts, of the political evolution of Mesut Özil.
Sugar and spice and everything nice (rose-water, cardamom, and gum-Arabic): it all goes into making Turkish Delight.
The raw material may be from the Black Sea region, but Mesut Özil was “Made in Germany” before being marked for exclusive export to Spain.
The grandchild of Turkish guest-workers in Germany (his grandfather worked in a metals mine in the Ruhr), Mesut Özil has three generations of his family in Germany – as he is fond of reminding us. He was born there, he grew up there, he went to school there, and all his friends are there. He learned how to kick a ball there, and played in all the youth teams.
The (yellow) apartment block Mesut grew up in.
He has, to use his own words, the technique and feeling for the ball of a Turkish player and the hard-working, never-give-up attitude of a German. He brings a “playfulness” to the German game, according to the always eloquent Sami Khedira. He has style and is the ‘number ten’ that the team has been waiting for for years, according to his erstwhile captain Michael Ballack. Franz Beckenbauer and Horst Hrubesch (his admiring U-21 coach) have called him “the German Messi.”
Mesut, holding the ball on the extreme right.
But there is nothing, on the face of it, that would mark Mesut Özil out as the point man in the integration debate. He’s shy. He’s quiet. He dislikes talking about his family. And of the 23 German National Team members who made it to South Africa with him, 11 had some immigrant roots in their backgrounds. Sami Khedira is half-Tunisian. Dennis Aogo comes of a Nigerian family. Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski were born in Poland. Mesut’s close friend from Werder Bremen, Marko Marin, is of Serbian background.
What is it then that makes Mesut the one who receives the Bambi award for being a model of “Gelungene Integration” [successful integration]?
Sami Khedira was recently asked about this by the German news magazine “Der Spiegel”. His theory is that Mesut’s play is rather spectacular – it is something that draws the eye, in other words.
My own theory is rather different. I think Mesut’s role in the team was always going to be prominent because of a minor scandal in his early playing career, and his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, which brought him a great deal of tabloid attention he wouldn’t otherwise have received. These two things will be the focus of this portion of the article before we come to the minor scandal of the Bambi award and the infamous Angela Merkel photograph following the Germany-Turkey game (which will be the focus of part II of this article.)
________________________________________
Mesut and Schalke FC - From the Stories of the Brothers Grimm
The Evil Club and the Little Boy that Could
Once upon a time, when Ozil was very small...
...Actually, he was rather small. Still is as it happens. 182 centimetres of slender frame is rather delicate for a footballer...but I digress...
...The myth goes that Mourinho first got a look at our Ozil after being sacked from his position at Chelsea. He naturally tuned in to watch "his team" play Schalke in the Champions League and there was a clever 17 year-old lad playing (who must have been quite obvious with blonde and red streaks in his hair - our Mesut had not yet acquired a more sophisticated style) who needed to be subbed out at the 59th minute after taking a knock. Mourinho, the story goes, made a note of the name and something along the lines of "buy this kid as soon as possible" because of course, The Special One may have been temporarily unemployed but he knew another club would come begging for his services soon. Mesut didn't have the obvious talent that Messi or Rooney had at 17, but he was intelligent, calm and had a raw quality that Mourinho recognized at once. Mesut had probably just changed his future without knowing it!
Anyway, at around the same time, Schalke - which had the benefit of watching Mesut play or train every day of the week and not just on TV - noticed they had a jewel on their hands, so they wanted Mesut to sign a contract extension. He refused, considering the terms that were offered unacceptable. His father said that his son would be at Real Madrid "within 3 years" - such was his quality. The club found this laughable and ground their heels in. Mesut ground his heels in. The club benched him - doubtless thinking that Mesut would give in - he was 17 after all, and what boy wouldn't sign to be able to play? Mesut declared he wanted to leave. The club retaliated by putting an impossible price on his head – 7 million Euros – and declaring he wouldn’t ever play for the club again – ever!
The club lost this particular battle of wills, and Mesut became the most expensive 18 year-old player in German history to that point when he sold for around 4.5 million Euros to Werder Bremen.
Happily as we know, we all lived happily ever after. Mesut signed with Werder Bremen and chalked up 9 goals and 17 assists in his final year there (the club has been distinctly unhappy and unlucky ever since he left). He was called up for the youth teams and was the star player in Germany's final win in the U-21 - which was practically the Mesut Ozil-show. His club strengthened him up and he began to be able to play nearly a whole game. He became the break-out star in a very talented and adorable team of youngsters at the World Cup (which took more than luck, but made everyone really happy)...
...Mourinho came to Real Madrid, found out the kid he'd noted as a prospect was for sale for very little with a year left on his contract.
...and he’s at Madrid now! Our lovely young man, scoring his lovely goals – kicking his team into a Clasico against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey Final in April!
And we all lived, more or less, happily and luckily ever after...
________________________________________
...So why is this story important? Well, for fans, it was probably the first time they ever heard of Mesut Özil. The expensive teenager with the difficult father.
It was his first experience with notoriety.
There is still some prejudice against Mesut and his father (who told the negotiators that his son would be at Real Madrid within three years - a true story!) among more traditional National Team fans. He was labelled as having a "bad attitude" and his father, in particular, was blamed. Schalke fans, too, seem unusually unable to let it go, even four years later – in marked contrast to Werder Bremen fans, who seem, as a group, to only want to wish him well in spite of his absence marking a distinct decline in the team’s ability to create goals and a week-in-week-out flirtation with relegation.
But more to the point, there may have been a tinge of unthinking racism about the whole thing. He wasn't a German International yet, remember. He was the upstart child of a "pushy immigrant" – worse, a “pushy working-class immigrant” - a label his father (who has been in Germany since he was two years old – making him about as German as Lukas Podolski) has never been able to shake off.
Well, parents have to look after their children - especially parents with the sense to realize that their child has the quality to play in a big club.
And Mesut’s self-possession and sense of self-worth is what makes him special. Not many 21 year olds arrive in Madrid and declare that they aren’t afraid of the competition for a starting place because “I know what I can do.” There’s nothing so unattractive as false-modesty, and nothing is so attractive as self-confidence that is grounded in reality.
________________________________________
Mesut’s Angel
Mesut with the very vivacious Anna-Maria
In an article after the U-21 championship, an unusually empathetic German journalist noted that Mesut Özil, who was visited by his family after the victory over England, lived all alone in a flat in the wealthy part of Bremen. He had no visitors aside from the cleaning lady who arrived once a week to dust. He was lacking “nest-warmth” – to use the precise phrase.
As it happens, Mesut wouldn’t be alone for long, in fact, depending on who you believe, he was already, secretly, attached – to a slightly older woman and her small child. At any rate, Mesut and his girlfriend made their first public appearance after a quiet few months together during a formal event for his club in the summer of 2009.
And as far as the German tabloids (who are perpetually obsessed with National Footballers) were concerned, you couldn’t possibly have made this woman up. It was a case of life being stranger than fiction.
Anna-Maria is the twice-married (but only once divorced) sister of pop-singer Sarah Connor – and the fans and the press have a mixed relationship with her. She elicits strong opinions. Some considered her an unattractive gold-digger. Others pointed out that she comes from a fairly wealthy family, which made gold-digging unnecessary, and that she was only 26 when they met – hardly “old” by any stretch of the imagination. In the tabloids she was usually referred to as a “beauty” and a "head-turner" - which she plainly is. "Charming" and "sweet" are other common descriptors. She had dated (and married) other footballers before.
She has spunk. She has a tattoo of her second husband’s name around her wrist. She's independent –the only WAG to ship herself off to South Africa before the knock-out rounds began – every other WAG waited for the DFB to book their flights for them – and Mesut had to ask National Team Captain Loew for special permission to visit her after the game against Australia. In footage taken after his screamer of a goal against Ghana, he can be seen looking up into the stands for her while being swamped by his teammates – since his family wasn’t there, he was plainly looking for her.
Well, opposites attract. It isn’t hard to see why a vivacious, charming, sweet, slightly over-the-top woman with a cute child would attract a Nest-warmth-lacking-Mesut – living alone in a flat in the wealthy part of Bremen with no one but his cleaning lady for company.
More than anything else though, it was the contrast of a charming head-turner and a rather shy boy - how could the tabloids resist? And then the news broke: Anna-Maria had converted to Islam (so that they could marry when her divorce came through) and was no longer eating pork! What was more, she had taken on a new nickname “Melek” – which means “angel”.
The tabloids were all over the whole thing when the story broke immediately following the quarter-final against England. “Mesut And His Angel”. “What Will Happen if Our World Cup Star Marries His Angel?” ran the headline in Bild Zeitung. But there were some odd moments in the hysterical coverage that followed. Naturally, a national team player that has rescued his team from the ignominy of an early exit and who has just helped destroy England 4-1 isn’t going to get much criticism – but there was already a trend in the coverage. Mesut doesn’t discuss his private life, so Bild, for example, was reduced to taking statements Mesut had made in the past (“going shopping – no, it’s not something I like to do”) and tried to fashion a story about it. Anna-Maria was suddenly being described as someone who would be keeping his house (the religious connotation was clear) like a good little Muslim. She had recently dyed her hair dark. Plainly, this must be because Mesut wanted her to do this!
The fact that she continued to dress the same way, and is plainly the type of woman who has never in her life done a thing she didn’t want to do – with all the self-confidence of one of the youngest in a huge family of some 8 siblings – that didn’t fit into the tabloid narrative.
And when she left, after finding that the press attention and loneliness away from her family in Madrid was too much for her, the press constructed another narrative. It was the play-station! Obviously! And Orange-Fanta! With nothing to go on except for Anna-Maria’s “no we didn’t argue, Mesut Özil is a wonderful person – this life [as the wife of a football star] just isn’t for me” and Mesut’s “I don’t discuss my private life” – the tabloids took a number of disparate known facts – Mesut’s weakness for his play-station (direct quote: “out of 100 games, I normally win 99”) and his weakness for Orange-Fanta and decided that plainly, that must have been the reason she left. He spent all his time on the play-station drinking Orange-Fanta! And the tattoo of her husband’s name – obviously, he must have objected to this!
Mesut, with his favourite hobby!
“Was She Too Wild For Our Good Özil?” ran the headline in Bild.
That the articles were picked up in the foreign press and not examined very critically before being translated into English and Spanish didn’t really help. There wasn’t a single direct quote in any of them – both having refused to comment - but it didn’t matter. He was now pegged as an Orange-Fanta and play-station addict.
________________________________________
Quick – what’s the name of Miroslav Klose’s wife? Who’s Sami Khedira’s ex-girlfriend? You didn’t know, did you? And as it happens, you’ll have to look it up yourselves, because I can’t remember off-hand either.
He may be the “Shyest of Our Stars” according to Zeit Online – with a style of football that is “delicate, fragile, thoughtful and divine” but the attention Mesut gets when he scores against Turkey, or when he is photographed with Angela Merkel, or when he receives an award for “Successful Integration” – or that he even receives such an award - can’t be divorced from these two incidents in his life. For better or worse, he’s a press darling. He’s everything they could want. He’s the attractive, shy, talented kid with the faintly odd relationship with a glamorous socialite and a minor club-fracas in his past. He’s one of the “Royals” – as Madrid’s players are referred to in Germany – but it took more than talent to get him this kind of attention.
____________________________________________
Part II – Of Bambi Awards, Photographs And Whistling Concerts - which will get to the heart of the current political storm, the Germany-Turkey game, the infamous Angela Merkel photograph, and the inexplicable award for "successful integration" will follow in a couple of days.
