Mesut Ozil is at the verge of losing his lucrative £22million deal with German-based sportswear maker, Adidas. The seven years deal which the Arsenal midfielder signed while he was still at Real Madrid will expire this June and there are reports that the company is not planning to renew the lucrative deal.
Though there is no official statement from the sportswear maker, sources from the company are saying that they won’t longer supply footwear to the German when the current contract expires in the coming days. One of the possible reasons for this is that the 31-year-old midfielder is no longer enjoying favourable public image since his meeting with the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2018.
Erdogan is regarded by Western media as an extremely corrupt politician that has greatly eaten deep into the treasury of the country thereby forcing it into avoidable debts. Though Ozil has Turkish ancestry, he was not expected to be associated with such a leader.
Amid the criticism from Human Rights activists who have always accused Erdogan of Human Rights abuses, Mesut Ozil walked out of the German national team and announced his retirement from international football that year, saying that he is being made a scapegoat for the failure of the German national team.
Shortly after his outburst against the German national team, and his premature retirement from the team, a German carmaker, Mercedes-Benz, ended its sponsorship deal with him.
Mesut Ozil and Controversies in England
Beyond his drama in Germany, Mesut Ozil who joined Arsenal from Real Madrid in 2013 is the highest-paid player at the Premier League club and one of the players at the club that has proven not to be an easy horse to control.
Recall that when football was hit by coronavirus pandemic which affected the earnings of the club, Mesut Ozil was among the three players at the club that refused to accept a 12.5% per cut offered by Arsenal FC. His decision not to corporate with a club that pays him £350,000 per week amid a crisis, attracted heavy criticism from some fans and pundits.
Also, recall that the 31-year-old ex-German international was a source of rancour at Arsenal during the reign of coach Unai Emery which saw him spent most of that era on the bench until the manager was sacked by the club in the summer of 2019 due to poor run of games.
In July 2019, he made the news for the bad reasons when he and Arsenal teammate, Sead Kolasinac were attacked by car hijackers who were masked and with knives. Kolasinac decided to alight from the black Mercedes G-Class Ozil was driving him in, and went to fight off the thieves. Instead of Ozil waiting to help, the CCTV camera in the area captured him driving away, leaving Kolasinac in the hands of the thieves. When the video of the incident emerged on the internet, the German footballer was subjected to widespread criticism.
He was also under fire in December 2019 when his comment against China’s treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang annoyed the Chinese government to the extent they cancelled the live coverage of Arsenal’s game against Manchester City in China.
Amid all the controversies and the consequences Ozil is currently suffering, his agent, Dr Erkut Sogut told ESPN “he could sign another deal tomorrow”.
Sogut insisted that “nobody has the reach he (Ozil) has in the Premier League so you can imagine what attraction he has for many boots brands”.
“Adidas knew he was pushing his own thing. He has been doing it on Twitter lately so it is now time to build his own brand while he is still actively playing”, he added “That is unique in football. Some players reach the end of their career and then try to build a brand but we think that is too late.”
