Mesut Özil

Mesut Özil is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation. ¹ The English article describes him as a practising Muslim; it names no school for him, so his data record leaves his faith as unknown. ¹

He was born on 15 October 1988 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, the son of Turkish immigrants; his grandfather had moved as a Gastarbeiter from Zonguldak, Turkey, to West Germany. ¹ He played at youth level for various Gelsenkirchen clubs between 1995 and 2000, followed by five years with Rot-Weiss Essen, before joining Schalke 04's youth system in 2005. ¹

He began his senior career with his hometown club Schalke 04 and signed for Werder Bremen in January 2008, helping the club win the DFB-Pokal — scoring the winning goal in the 2009 final against Bayer Leverkusen — and reach the 2009 UEFA Cup final in his first full season. ¹ In August 2010 he joined Real Madrid, won the 2010–11 Copa del Rey, and helped the club win the 2011–12 La Liga title with a then-record 100 points, leading the league's assist chart. ¹

On 2 September 2013 he joined Arsenal for a fee of up to £42.5 million, becoming the most expensive German player in history and Arsenal's record signing at the time. ¹ He made over 250 appearances for Arsenal, helped end the club's nine-year trophy drought by winning the 2013–14 FA Cup and added two more FA Cups, and recorded 19 Premier League assists in 2015–16. ¹ In 2021 he joined Fenerbahçe; after that contract was terminated in 2022 he signed with İstanbul Başakşehir, and he retired from playing in 2023. ¹

A German international for over nine years, he holds the record for the most German Player of the Year awards, with five, was the top assist provider at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, and helped Germany win the 2014 World Cup. ¹ The article records that he retired from international competition in 2018, alleging what he saw as discrimination and disrespect by the German Football Association (DFB) and German media, after criticism that followed a photograph with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; the museum records his stated reasons as he stated them and makes no verdict of its own. ¹

In December 2019 Özil published a poem denouncing the treatment of Uyghurs in China and criticising Muslim countries for not speaking out about the Xinjiang internment camps; Arsenal released a statement distancing itself from the comments, Chinese broadcasters removed an Arsenal match from their schedules, and the Chinese Football Association called the comments "unacceptable", all as the article records them. ¹ Some commentators later suggested his omission from the Arsenal squad was related to that criticism, a suggestion the article attributes rather than states as fact. ¹

The English article's personal-life section calls him "a practising Muslim" who recites from the Quran before his matches, quotes him saying his teammates know they cannot talk to him while he prays before going out on the pitch, records that he observes the Ramadan fast on the days his job allows, and that he performed the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in May 2016. ¹ His giving is also reported, including donating his 2014 World Cup winnings, an estimated £240,000, to pay for surgery for 23 sick Brazilian children through the BigShoe project. ¹ These are accounts of his practice and giving as the sources report them, and no source used here names a school or madhhab for him. ¹

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