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BERLIN – Germany woke up Monday at a national debate on integration, racism and sport, announcing that one of its most successful footballers Famous left the national team, claiming to be a victim of bigotry and hypocrisy. 19659002] Mesut Ozil, star of the world champion team in 2014, announced his resignation in a long-running media series after enduring weeks of criticism for posing for a photo with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "
" I'm German when you win, but I'm an immigrant when you lose, "writes Ozil, who was born in Germany to parents. who had immigrated from Turkey.
Ozil, 29, was a symbol of modern German football and, by extension, a modern and diverse Germany – an offensive midfielder who was voted player of the year five times by German fans and played in the national team for nearly a decade. His sudden departure from the national team has raised long questions about ethnic identity in Germany and the intersection of sport and politics.
"It is disturbing that a great German footballer like Mesut Ozil no longer feels in his country." The Federal Minister of Justice, Katarina Barley, wrote on Twitter shortly thereafter the publication of the decision Sunday, referring to the German acronym of the German Football Association
. The defending champion suffered the worst performance in his modern World Cup history – expelled from the tournament in Russia before another 16 teams qualified for the knockout stages. Mr. Ozil's denunciation by some fans, commentators and football officials intensified
. Team manager Oliver Bierhoff appeared to question Ozil's performance in the field, suggesting that he should have been excluded from the team. Reinhard Grindel, the head of the football badociation, publicly asked Mr Ozil to explain Erdogan's picture; Mr Grindel, in turn, was accused of not protecting Mr Ozil against xenophobic attacks.
In his resignation statement on Sunday, Mr. Ozil wrote that his meeting with Mr. Erdogan was not political, but
Much of his statement was about his disagreement with Mr. Grindel, a former member of the center-right party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Ozil referred to Mr Grindel's comments which rejected multiculturalism in Germany as a lie.
Ulrike Demmer, spokeswoman for Ms Merkel, congratulated Mr Ozil and said that football plays a big role in the integration of immigrants in Germany. . She said the Chancellor respected Ozil's decision to resign, and that others should respect him.
But the gap between Mr Ozil and much of German football was illustrated on Monday by Uli Hoeness, chairman of the FC Bayern Munich team, who accused the player of "hiding his poor performance behind this photo "to Mr. Erdogan
The National Multicultural Team of France has not sparked the same kind of debate about race and identity this year. He helped, of course, the team to win the tournament, bringing back the World Cup 20 years after the country's first victory in 1998.
Comments on French players, some of which are The comments from abroad aroused reactions – including an exchange between comedian Trevor Noah, host of the "Daily Show", and Gerard Araud. , the ambbadador of France in Washington
. Noah, a native of South Africa who had proudly declared after the victory that "Africa had won the World Cup", was quickly reprimanded by Mr. Araud, who wrote on Twitter and even in an official letter that the Show "the host had misunderstood the cultural model of France."
Turkish officials quickly celebrated Mr. Ozil's decision to leave the German team. Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul wrote on Twitter that Mr. Ozil had "kicked his best goal against the Fascist virus, leaving the German national team."
A former president of the German Football Association, Theo Zwanziger, called the resignation "a major setback for the efforts of integration beyond football in our country", and said that the episode was likely to Send a message that people of immigrant origin were "Germans of second clbad. "
Ozil's statement about this infamous image has reached a wide audience – he has 23 million followers on Twitter, more than any of his former teammates, and Heavy news has drawn many other people to his side. Mr Ozil, under contract with the Arsenal football club in Britain until 2021, wrote his message in English, guaranteeing broad readership outside of Germany
whether intentionally or not, the Mr. Ozil's words on social media echo those of another German. In 1965, Albert Einstein declared in a speech in Paris: "If my theory of relativity proves effective, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen. of the world. If my theory turns out to be wrong, France will say that I am a German and that Germany will declare that I am Jewish. "
Follow Christopher F. Schuetze on Twitter: @CFSchuetze .
Aurelien Breeden contribution from Paris.
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