Football's Two-faced Critics

- Paul Thomas

The dispiriting saga of two German footballers’ supposedly divided loyalties (Sport, July 14) has reached a predictable conclusion. Before the recent Fifa World Cup, Mesut Özil and Ilkay GündoÄŸan, both German-born of Turkish descent, courted controversy by posing smilingly with Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, whose leadership style attracts the euphemism “strongman”. Right-wing elements in Germany took umbrage because they felt the pair had revealed themselves to be Turks first, Germans second. The left disapproved of German representatives buddying up with an authoritarian.

This week, Özil broke his silence to insist the photo opportunity was merely a matter of “respecting the highest office of my family’s country”, as opposed to a political endorsement. He then announced his premature – he’s 29 – retirement from international football, accusing the DFB, German football’s governing body, of racism and disrespect: “I’m German when we win but an immigrant when we lose.”