XtraTime Web Desk: Controversy sparks in German football as superstar midfielder Mesut Ozil announces a shock retirement from international football.
Ozil said that Sunday he was quitting the German national football team, citing “racism” in the criticism of him in the side’s World Cup debacle. “It is with a heavy heart and after much consideration that because of recent events, I will no longer be playing for Germany at international level whilst I have this feeling of racism and disrespect,” he said on his Twitter handle.
Ozil was a member of the Germany squad that went out of the World Cup finals in Russia at the group stage and was the target of criticism for his performances as well as his meeting with Erdogan, who has been accused of human rights abuses.
The Arsenal midfielder has Turkish ancestry and defended his actions in a lengthy statement and one in which he launched a scathing attack on the German football federation (DFB). “For me, having a picture with President Erdoğan wasn’t about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country,” Özil wrote on Twitter.