Originally Posted by
I am invisible
Probably a little bit of all three, I suspect.
I spent half of yesterday evening listening to German football experts and former players on the radio, and the opinion seemed to be fairly unanimous that he has been scapegoated and singled out for harsher criticism than the other players (pretty much going back to before the 2014 WC), and that the DFB have made a right pig's ear of a situation that they could have easily squashed weeks ago.
From what I've read from his statement, his main gripe seems to be 1) with this guy Reinhard Grindel, who actually voted against dual-nationalities in German parliament, and is on record as saying that Islamic culture has become too ingrained in German cities (so all in all a pretty piss-poor choice for President of the DFB), and 2) the fact that he is constantly referred to as German-Turkish in the press instead of just German (or, better yet, as Mesut Özil, as his nationality really shouldn't need to be referenced at all when writing about him in the context of his national team). I think that second point is one of those drip-drip things that sounds like it should be a minor irritation at best, but that gradually has an effect without anyone really noticing that it's happening? Every time he's referred to as German-Turkish it's essentially a little reminder that he's thought of as German, but not really German, and then when the poor performances and bad results inevitably happen, it probably seems like the rest of the German players have been distanced from him and all of the undesirable labels that he's been tagged with over the years (lazy, uncommitted, etc) - labels that are traditionally regarded as distinctly unGerman.
That's how I imagine it will feel to Özil anyway. Chuck in the abuse and the threats that he and his family have been receiving on social media, the way Grindel has fanned the flames of a situation that he should have been trying to contain, and the childish, contemptuous comments of someone extremely influential like Uli Hoeness, and you can at least understand why he maybe feels justified and validated in making these claims of scapegoating and discrimination.
Having said all of that, Özil also comes across as unnecessarily defensive and completely unwilling to admit fault when it comes to 'the photo', and I really don't understand that at all? Nor do I understand why he let it drag on for so long without a response? If he'd just worded an immediate apology and mumbled something about poor judgement, then it may not have satisfied everyone, but I'm also sure it would have been quickly forgotten and written off as just another example of a footballer doing something stupid (in a long history of footballers doing bloody stupid things). Instead, he's tried to defend the indefensible, and in doing so he's given weight to the counter argument that he can't handle criticism, and that he's just playing the race / discrimination card to deflect attention away from poor performances.
For me, 'the photo', Özil's performances on the pitch, and his claims of scapegoating and discrimination are 3 distinct issues, each worthy of their own debate, but unfortunately neither side seem able (or willing) to separate them when making their arguments. For what it's worth, I think he's been unbelievably stupid with the photo, that his performances have been 'meh' for some time, and that (on some level) he is probably hoping that his claims of discrimination will deflect attention from the issue of his form. However, I also think that there probably is some merit to his claims of discrimination and scapegoating too, even if he is also using it to deflect - I don't think the two counter-accusations have to be mutually exclusive.
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