Mesut Ozil is almost certain not to be brought back into the fold at Arsenal for the second half of the season, with the option opening in January to sign a pre-contract agreement with a club abroad to prepare for the next chapter of his career.
Ozil is exploring opportunities in Italy, Qatar, Germany and Turkey, but it is the prospect of a move to America, a major commercial frontier, that presents multifaceted intrigue.
Ozil has received numerous requests from major studios and documentary makers to film a documentary for a major streaming platform. There is deep interest in his life from past to present. His upbringing in Germany to Turkish parents, his rise to Real Madrid and Germany World Cup winner, his subsequent treatment by the German national team.
Then there is his more recent athlete activism, speaking out against China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims at huge detriment to his own commercial earning power and the subsequent ostracisation by Arsenal, who distanced themselves from his comments.
In addition, he refused to take a pay cut during the pandemic before he was given assurances lower paid staff would be protected (the club then made 55 staff redundant) and offered to pay the wages of Gunnersaurus, the club’s popular mascot who was a victim of those cuts.
A move to America, where the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime are based, would create an even larger audience, and opportunities are emerging there, potentially at DC United, LA Galaxy and Inter Miami. It is seen as an ideal place to marry commercial advantages: expand Ozil’s brand in the States while using the player’s own vast online following to promote the MLS and the club he joins.
Opportunity beckons for Ozil’s brand
Ozil has more than 100million followers across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, affording him enormous global commercial power. He also has a YouTube channel with 154,000 subscribers, where he shares workout sessions, interactions with supporters and interviews.
Ozil’s M10 brand empire includes numerous charity projects, including Big Shoe who fund surgeries for children around the world, an eSports team created in 2018, who this year signed the Fortnite world champion, and his M10 Streetwear clothing range – selling casual hoodies, t-shirts, hats and accessories in more than 70 countries – that was launched in November.
He has a coffee franchise – 39 Steps – with coffee shops all over the world. He plans to open one in the Middle East next year and, intriguingly, it has been revealed another is set to open at DC United.
On the M10 Streetwear website a mission statement reads: “We cross cultures. We are part of an international community standing for freedom and inclusivity. We are a generation that feels home everywhere, but rests nowhere. We are rooted in movement.”
Ozil was born in the German city Gelsenkirchen and his life has taken him to clubs in his home country, Spain, England. Moving across the Atlantic would pay further testament to that philosophy.
He has a genuine affinity to basketball, pictured at the O2 Arena watching the Indiana Pacers play the Denver Nuggets sat next to Josh Kroenke, whose father, Stan, owns Arsenal and the Nuggets and an attendee at NBA All-Star games. That presents the prospect of cross-networking sports. He is also an investor and strategic advisor with Class 5 Global, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco.
There are suggestions that he will build an M10 Football Academy in Turkey and Germany, to coach football’s next stars, and with the huge growth of ‘soccer’ in the US and the 2026 World Cup to be hosted in America, Canada and Mexico, North America is seen as an ideal investment area for youth football.
Unlike many of the MLS’s former stars, Ozil is only 32 years old and would not simply be using it as a platform to ease out of the game in the twilight of his career. The league is trying to shed its image as a retirement home from the days when “dinosaurs like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Andrea Pirlo roamed,” as described by one LA Times columnist.
Moreover, when many clubs are currently entering the eSports market, with overlaps between football and the professional industry of the Fifa franchise, a club could tap into Ozil’s vast expertise in that area.
In Germany, his team have built its own ‘Gaming House’ where from January the players will live and compete in competitions. The team recently signed a professional partnership with GLAMIRA, a German jewellery company available in 65 countries, with branches in the UK, Switzerland, Australia and the US. Part of the deal includes players wearing a specially-designed GLAMIRA ring.
Defended by Wenger, frozen out by Arteta
Arsenal manager Arteta did not rule out Ozil returning to the squad when asked about the situation recently. “He’s not in the squad right now,” Arteta said before they played Burnley at the start of December. “I’m focusing just on the players we have here. But, whatever happens in January, we have some time to decide.”
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, meanwhile, defended the player he signed from Real Madrid for £42.5m in 2013. “He was not difficult to manage,” Wenger said. “He was a guy who had a special quality as a creative player and needed to have fun. He is an artist and these guys are a bit more sensitive. They need support and an environment that pushes them to give their best.
“You have two ways to see a football team. You get everybody to do the same. The same intensity of work, the same defensive work or you find a compromise.
“You have a more creative player in the team who can do less defensive work but you build a team around him who can compensate for these deficiencies. That is what you have to think about.”
Yet it is not thought that Arteta will change his stance on Ozil when clubs are able to update their registered Premier League and Europa League squad lists at the end of the January transfer window, and that only a change in management would alter that course.
That said, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Arteta could be sacked by then, with Arsenal struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League table after their worst start to a season in half a century and now mooted as serious relegation contenders unless something changes. Still, it would be spectacularly embarrassing for Arteta to have to U-turn on the decision to exile Arsenal’s highest-paid star, even if Ozil is the creative playmaker the first team are so desperately short of this season.
Players in the final year of their contract can sign pre-contract terms with clubs abroad in the January window before their final season ends, which would leave six months for Ozil’s arrival at a new club to be teased and for commercial deals to be established and put in place, in time for his debut.
Ultimately, it will be up to Ozil where he wishes to tread next. In the upcoming few weeks he will mull over options with a view to securing a deal in the January transfer window.
His time at Arsenal may be nearing an end, but the Empire of Ozil rests nowhere, and marches onwards around the world.
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