i think he got too much criticism as a PLAYER, i always rated him and still do. i think his performances, while definitely not very good, have been judged much more harshly than those of other players that disappointed.
particularly the people who insult him with the typical stereotypes now took any excuse to criticise him no matter what, and it's really not hard to see where they are coming from...

however, his handling of the whole affair, first his hiding from the press, then his refusal to admit ANY wrongdoing, and especially his stupid little victim act make me kind of glad he retires - this thing wasn't going away any other way unfortunately.
yes, there are those people out there (and unfortunately in here as well) who are after him BECAUSE of his background, but as a professional athlete he should have been more aware of his actions. as retarded as those are that actually attack him based on his background, the one's claiming that everyone criticising him is just doing that because of his turkish roots aren't much better. it just shows a lack of character and sophistication to immediately assume the victim role and never question if some of the criticism isn't legitimate...

edit: and just for the record, özil is spot on about grindel, he's an incompetent moron who completely mishandled the situation from the very beginning and is now trying to hide his own shortcomings by blaming özil for everything. that doesn't change the facts about who messed up first concerning 'erdo-gate', but it's still classless and disgusting. grindel, bierhoff, löw - they all need to go asap.

This post was edited by fender on Jul 22 2018 02:11pm

It was a toxic environment for him being booed, receiving racist abuse from fans and the overblown level of media scrutiny.

he caused that environment all by himself, as fender correctly points out he refused to do anything at all after this shitshow
he never received racist abuse from actual fans, sure some idiots were happy to use this opportunity, but that tiny minority is barely worth mentioning




yep, özil has done a good job with that at least

these dfb assholes will be in the center of the shitstorm now

on a sidenote i dont think özil realises, that proper handling of the situation by grindel would have resulted in him getting kicked out of the team ^^

This post was edited by ampoo on Jul 22 2018 02:18pm

Games: 92
Assists: 33
Goals: 23
World Cup 1
5x German POTY

#istandwithmesut

he constantly declined as a player since 2010 imo but the Erdogan-picture shitstorm is hilarious...

He did a favor to his family with this picture, he is propably too dumb to watch the news, so he cant knwo Erdogan is rding german tanks to Syria...

This post was edited by Speckham23 on Jul 22 2018 03:31pm

last time he was really good and producing was like 2010 or so

özil's stats and football achievements wouldn't change if he was a child molester or murderer either... in other words, they are completely irrelevant to this discussion.

#istandwithlogic

true, but lets not start to act like he is a big loss for the team on the pitch

What a shitshow

he's not irreplacable, but he's way better than many people give him credit for or want to admit - at least in MY opinion.
so if that bs had been resolved and both sides had shown some maturity and admitted to their mistakes, i would have liked to see the guy still play for us. given his complete lack of self-awareness, however, that whole thing would have remained a toxic mess that'd continue to drag down the whole team and alienate the fans.

it's a real shame, i still kinda get where he's coming from, but apparently he's just not smart enough or just too arrogant, so he resorts to the overplayed 'any criticism of me is just racism' card...