In many ways, the news that Mesut Özil has decided to enter politics will come as a significant shock to those who knew him at Arsenal. Özil was never much of a public speaker during his eight years in north London. Nor was he the most likely member of the Arsenal squad to win a popularity contest.
In other ways, though, it is a step that feels entirely predictable for a man who always knew the power of words and actions, especially his own. Özil wielded great influence in the final years of his playing career, and he evidently intends to further enhance his political and social standing in this second chapter of his professional life.
It would not have been unreasonable for Özil, who generated considerable personal wealth as a footballer, to quietly enjoy his retirement away from the spotlight. Instead, he has taken the opposite approach: last month, he was named on the central decision and executive committee of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, led by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
How deep into the jungle of politics does Özil intend to go? What sort of political force does he want to be? What, and who, will he stand for? For now, there are many more questions than answers.
Even before this formal entry into Erdogan’s political sphere, the post-football Özil had already generated plenty of headlines around the world. He has remained a source of widespread fascination following his retirement in March 2023, in large part because he has undergone an extraordinary body transformation.
In his playing days, Özil was famously slight and floaty. Not anymore. Since retirement, he has packed on muscle and developed a bodybuilder’s physique. If Özil the footballer was all willowy limbs and narrow shoulders, then Özil the ex-footballer is all rippling muscles and washboard abs, with huge veins popping on his biceps.
He has proudly demonstrated his new shape on social media, where his personal trainer has posted numerous videos of the former midfielder pushing, curling and pressing enormous weights.
Among those online posts was an image that could prove relevant to Özil’s new political career. Pulling up his shirt to reveal his torso in a picture published by his personal trainer in 2023, Özil displayed a tattoo on his chest. The tattoo is of a wolf, howling towards the sky, underneath a flag that appears to feature three crescents.
The wolf bears a strong resemblance to the logo of the Grey Wolves organisation, a controversial far-right political movement in Turkey. The Grey Wolves are the youth wing of the Nationalist Movement Party, which has a logo featuring three crescents not dissimilar to those depicted on Özil’s chest.
The Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit international policy organisation, describes the Grey Wolves as an “extremist”, “fascist” and “violent” group. They were banned in France in 2020, while Austria banned the use of its “wolf” salute in 2019. When Turkey defender Merih Demiral performed the salute at Euro 2024, he was given a two-match suspension by Uefa.
Asked by Telegraph Sport whether the tattoo is indeed a reference to the Grey Wolves organisation, representatives for Özil did not respond.
Although the meaning of his tattoo has therefore not been publicly clarified, there can be no doubting the strength of the connection that Özil obviously feels to Turkey. He was raised in Germany, played 92 games for the German national side and was a crucial member of the team who won the 2014 World Cup, but he has long since turned his back on the country of his birth.
When he quit international football in 2018, following heavy criticism for posing for a photograph with Erdogan, Özil cited the “racism and disrespect” he had faced in Germany because of his Turkish heritage. “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose,” he said.
From that moment on, it seems, Özil has fully embraced his inner sense of Turkishness. When he married former Miss Turkey Amine Gulse in 2019, he did so on the banks of the Bosphorus, with Erdogan as his best man.
And when he finally left Arsenal in January 2021, after months of exile from Mikel Arteta’s first team, there was no surprise at his next destination: Istanbul. Özil signed for Fenerbahce and took the No 67 shirt, in reference to the postcode of the Turkish city of Zonguldak, his family’s hometown.
It was a move, though, that failed to reinvigorate him as a player. “When Özil transferred to Fenerbahce, the belief in Turkey was that he was going to be another Gheorghe Hagi, who is a legend in Turkey,” says Ziya Adnan, a journalist at the BirGun newspaper.
“With Hagi, Galatasaray won the Uefa Cup. An incredible player, a strong leader on and off the pitch. Fenerbahce were hoping they would get the same sort of character in Özil. It never worked out.
“The expectation soon became frustration, and they realised that his character was not suitable to playing football anymore. You could see, on the pitch, he had the talent, but not the hunger. His contract was mutually terminated at Fenerbahce and he transferred to Basaksehir, which had huge support by Erdogan’s party and has a lot of political links. He could not even last there a full season.”
Within hours of his retirement in March 2023, there were suggestions in Turkey that Özil was preparing for a move into politics. It was reported that he had already made efforts to secure support in Zonguldak.
Master of political games
Özil had demonstrated at Arsenal that he had interests and passions which went far beyond football. In December 2019, for example, he spoke out strongly against the treatment of Uighur Muslims in China.
For all the criticism he received in north London, and for all the difficulties he caused his colleagues at the club, he was also always socially conscious. Özil did not make many friends among the staff at Arsenal, but even those who found him frustrating will acknowledge the authenticity of his charity work.
Özil also demonstrated in his final years at Arsenal that he knew how to play a political game. In 2020, during his exile from the Arsenal squad and after he had refused to take a pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic, he publicly offered to pay the full salary of Jerry Quy, the Arsenal employee who doubled up as club mascot Gunnersaurus, after learning that he had been made redundant. In those days, Özil also regularly used his social media accounts to make digs at the club.
As for Turkish politics? Özil’s support for Erdogan was reiterated following his retirement, ahead of the Turkish presidential elections in 2023. “We are always with you, Mr President,” he said, alongside a picture of the two men shaking hands.
One might assume that Özil is a beloved figure in Turkey, given his obvious passion for his ancestral home. But, as ever with Özil, it is not so straightforward. Many in Turkey remain upset that he chose to represent Germany on the international stage – a decision which prompted accusations, at the time, that he had betrayed his Turkish heritage. Now, his consistent support for Erdogan does not help his standing in a highly polarised nation.
“The problem with Özil started before the election in Turkey, when he was photographed with Erdogan,” says Adnan. “This created a huge uproar. Özil received huge criticism by large sections of the country. There is a lot of criticism of Erdogan and his party regarding democracy in Turkey and freedom of speech.”
Rightly or wrongly, Özil’s divisiveness is one of the defining themes of his professional life. As a player, he was forever at the centre of fierce debates. There were those who adored his creative style, and then those who hated his lack of defensive intensity. Off the pitch, too, he was a man upon whom the wider issues of integration, multiculturalism and immigration were foisted.
As a young player, Özil did not ask for those burdens. He did not request a life as a lightning rod for such issues. But over time he evidently learnt to embrace his strange standing in the world, to understand his own value and the weight of his own words. Before, Özil was a divisive figure largely through no fault of his own. Now, by entering politics, he gives the impression that he actively wants to keep it that way.
