Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts

Bellerin backs Arsenal team-mate Ozil

Hector Bellerin has praised Arsenal team-mate Mesut Ozil for speaking out about the issues that prompted his international retirement.

By Opta
Mesut Ozil has been applauded by Hector Bellerin for standing up to the injustices he believes he has faced in Germany.

London, July 23: Hector Bellerin has praised Arsenal team-mate Mesut Ozil for speaking out about the issues that prompted his international retirement.

Ozil ended his Germany career on Sunday, confirming his decision in a series of social media statements that criticised the media and German FA president Reinhard Grindel.

The playmaker, who has been at the centre of a storm surrounding the photo he took with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May, claimed he was made a scapegoat for his country's poor World Cup performance due to his Turkish roots.

His comments received support from Spanish full-back Bellerin, who posted a message of solidarity on Twitter.

"Surreal that someone who has done so much for his country on and off the pitch has been treated with such disrespect," Bellerin wrote.

"Well done Mesut Ozil for standing up to this behaviour!"

Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng, who debuted for Germany in the same year as Ozil, shared a photo of the two together, adding: "It was a pleasure Abi", with 'Abi' the Turkish word for brother.

Ozil earned 92 caps for Germany and was part of Joachim Low's side who won the World Cup in 2014.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness welcomed Ozil's international retirement as long overdue in an extraordinary attack on the midfielder's performances for Germany.

The former West Germany forward Hoeness believes the former Real Madrid player is using the incident to deflect scrutiny away from his efforts on the pitch.

"I'm glad that the spook is over. He's been playing rubbish for years," Hoeness told Sport Bild.

"The last duel he won on the pitch was before the 2014 World Cup. Now he's hiding himself and his c***py performances behind this photo."

Hoeness went on to claim that Bundesliga side Bayern had targeted the playmaker in their matches against Arsenal.

"Whenever we played against Arsenal we played over him because we knew that was the weak point," he said.

"His 35 million followers - that don't exist in real world - are convinced he has played sublimely when he completes a cross pass.

"The development in our country is a catastrophe. You have to go back to what it is: sport. And from a sporting point of view Ozil has no place in the national team for years."

Story first published: Monday, July 23, 2018, 16:46 [IST]
Other articles published on Jul 23, 2018