Mesut Ozil, World Cup winner, enters Turkish politics with ruling party
Footballer Mesut Ozil, a World Cup winner with Germany, has entered Turkish politics by becoming a senior decision-maker in the country's ruling party.
Ozil joined the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) central decision and executive committee at a congress in Ankara on Sunday, during which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected as the head of the party for the ninth time.
The German-Turkish footballer has had a close relationship with Erdogan for several years. In 2019, the president was best man at Ozil's wedding to former Miss Turkey Amine Gulse.
During his illustrious football career, he played for Real Madrid, Arsenal and Fenerbahce, among other clubs, winning the Spanish La Liga title and four English FA Cup trophies.
He played 92 times for the German national team, winning the World Cup in 2014, and winning German national team player of the year a record five times.
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However, his relationship with the national team soured following the 2018 World Cup, when Ozil retired from international football, alleging that the German media and the football association, DFB, had racially discriminated against him.
"I am German when we win, an immigrant when we lose," he said at the time.
The episode came a few weeks after Ozil and Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan, another German international of Turkish descent, were criticised in Germany after being pictured meeting with Erdogan.
"My job is a football player and not a politician, and our meeting was not an endorsement of any policies," Ozil said at the time. "The treatment I have received from the DFB and many others makes me no longer want to wear the German national team shirt. I feel unwanted and think what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten."
Since then, Ozil has made a number of interventions on political and human rights issues.
He publicly condemned China's crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in December 2019, which angered Chinese authorities. Ozil's then-club Arsenal distanced itself from the condemnation.
The following year, he commented on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, stating that the territory was "legally and internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, yet it is currently occupied illegally".
He has also frequently spoken out in support of Palestinian rights and against Israeli abuses.
Ozil is not the first footballer to join the AKP's ranks - former Aston Villa defender Alpay Ozalan has been a member of Turkey's parliament since 2018.
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