Arsenal icon admits stunning record move was ‘serious mistake’ in show of hypocrisy
Mesut Ozil has privately admitted his record move to Arsenal was a ‘serious mistake’ despite previously saying he would ‘never regret’ joining them.
Ozil made a stunning £42.4m switch to Arsenal from Real Madrid in summer 2013; it remains one of the most momentous transfer deadline day deals ever.
The Germany international played more than 250 matches for Arsenal over seven years before being phased out by Mikel Arteta, with Ozil moving to Turkey and retiring from the game altogether soon thereafter.
Sami Khedira played 184 games alongside Ozil for Germany and Real Madrid and has claimed that his former teammate has told him he should never have left the latter.
“Everyone understands Cristiano Ronaldo,” Khedira told the Spanish press. “To win games, Cristiano was the man, because he never failed. He was always there. We needed a goal, so we passed the ball to Cristiano. But the most special player for me was Mesut Ozil.
“And I explain it with his departure. The day Mesut left, we were all saying to Florentino [Perez, club president]: ‘But why are you selling him?’ But we all said it, right? Benzema, Cristiano, Ramos… Ozil was an absolute genius, he was a real magician.
“I played behind him and you gave him a bad pass and he controlled the ball with ease. I have never seen a player with that class and that quality, really.”
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Asked whether Ozil could have won the Ballon d’Or had he stayed at Real, Khedira added: “I don’t know, because there were Cristiano and Messi and also Xavi and Iniesta, who for me should have won a Ballon d’Or.
“But yes, Ozil had that potential. And although he had a great career, it would have been different at Madrid. And he told me that it was a serious mistake to leave Madrid, because he had everything here.
“The Bernabeu loved him, he played like an angel. Really, Mesut played like Zidane. My idol was Zizou and if you put both of them on YouTube and watch them. Mesut was like Zizou.”
In January 2021, when Ozil was still contracted to Arsenal but had long since made his final appearance for the club, he insisted he would ‘never regret’ joining them.
‘Of course. There have been many ups and downs so far, but all in all I’ll never regret my decision to join Arsenal,’ he posted on social media. ‘And to be honest, the last couple of games before the corona break in February & March 2020 made [it] really a lot [of] fun.
‘I’ve enjoyed that time a lot and I’ve thought we’re really on a very positive way. But after the break things unfortunately changed…’
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