Mesut Ozil

Mesut Ozil is a German Turk and a Muslim by faith. Ozil began dating Mandy Capristo, a singer by profession, from 2013 but their relationship came to an end in 2014 after it was reported that he was seeing another woman. Nevertheless, he resumed his relationship with Mandy in November 2015.

Mesut is also renowned for his philanthropic bent of mind having donated large sums to numerous charitable organizations. He contributed his entire 2014 World Cup prize money (about USD 5, 00, 000) towards the treatment of approximately 23 Brazilian kids.

Mesut Ozil was born on 15 October 1988, in Gelsenkirchen, a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

As a youngster, he initially played for some local clubs in Gelsenkirchen, and later on moved to Rot-Weiss-Essen, an Essen-based DFB football club that he represented for 5 years.

Ozil made it to the Schalke 04’s youth academy in the year 2005. He represented FC Schalke 04 wearing jersey number 17 and played as an attacking midfielder. He turned down a lucrative offer made by Schalke 04 claiming that it was peanuts and eventually shifted to Werder Bremen in 2008.

Werder Bremen, a German Football Association club based in the Northwest German state of Bremen, agreed to pay Mesut the steep fees demanded by him. He signed a contract with the club to play for 3 years. He donned jersey no. 11 while representing Werder Bremen.

On 26 April 2008 Ozil scored his first goal in a Bundesliga match against Karlsruher SC that enabled Werder Bremen to win the contest 2-1. Next year, he scored the only goal against Bayer Leverkusen, helping his team qualify for the 2009 DFB-Pokal.

Mesut loomed large on Werder Bremen in the 2009-2010 Bundesliga Season as an influential playmaker setting up numerous goals for his team. He scored his 100th goal in Bundesliga while playing against Schalke 04, the club from where he started his professional football career.

Werder Bremen was successful in reaching the DFB-Pokal finals in 2010 largely due to Ozil’s contributions. However, Bayern Munich proved too good for Werder Bremen as the latter lost the match by a margin of 4 goals to nil.

Mesut was part of the 11-member Werder Bremen squad that won the 2008-09 DFB-Pokal silverware. He played for Real Madrid in the finals of 2011-12 La Liga, 2010-11 Copa del Rey, and 2012 Supercopa de Espana which Spanish club won.

Ozil was also instrumental in helping Arsenal lift the FA Cup twice in a row; in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and again in 2016-17.

Mesut has won numerous awards and also has been nominated for several honors. He bagged the ‘German Player of the Year Award’ three times in a row, in 2011, 2012, 2013, and successively in 2015 and 2016. He was nominated for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball Award.