Mesut Özil: Is it because I’m a Muslim?

They call it the Affenkäfig, the monkey cage: a dusty, inner-city football pitch behind a high green fence in the western Germany city of Gelsenkirchen.

With weeds poking up through the gravel and abandoned shopping trolleys at the edges, it’s where local youths play ball and talk – often joined by older neighbours. This week, as so often, they were talking about Mesut Özil.

Karl-Heinz Hassmann remembers watching Özil play here as a youth, honing his talent in six- and seven-hour stretches at a time to become one of Germany’s best footballers – and now its most notorious.

“People were looking for a scapegoat for this affair and Özil fit the bill,” he said.

The affair began in London last May when Özil met Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a charity event in London.

When photos of the meeting were published online by the Erdogan election campaign, Özil – a media favourite and idol in the German-Turkish community – was accused by German politicians and journalists of endorsing an authoritarian leader weeks before a poll in which Turks living in Germany could – and did – vote for him en masse.

A series of crisis meetings followed, including with the German president, but Özil declined to comment. His silence sparked further fury and overshadowed his disappointing World Cup.

This week came from the player a remarkable 2,200-word statement attacking what he sees as racism, disrespect and double standards in the German football association (DFB) and German society. The statement ended with the announcement he would no longer don the German national jersey.

“I used to wear the German shirt with such pride and excitement, but now I don’t,” he said.

Read Entire Article: The Irish Times