The German saga of Mesut Özil is symptomatic of a world under tension | Richard Williams | Soccer

W While a 5 Live Radio player was referring to "The Englishman Geraint Thomas" in an article about the Tour de France this week, the response of those who had Welsh blood in their veins went from a painful grin to a tired shoulder shrug. It was ignorant. It was annoying. But no one was going to do it.

In other countries and in other sports, the question of national identity can cause very different reactions. This week, for example, Mesut Özil announced his retirement from international football following the response in Germany – and the head of the DFB, the German Football Association, in particular – to an argument that began when he posed for a photo with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in London in May

Özil's grandfather moved from Turkey to Germany as gastarbeiter in the years 1970, settling in Gelsenkirchen, in the industrial Ruhr where Mesut was born in 1988 His mother, he tells him, taught him to remember where he came from. "I have two hearts," he wrote in a statement responding to the initial fury, "a German and a Turk."

Erdogan was in London to visit the Queen and Theresa May. In itself, many people were unhappy about it. While dismantling the secular state established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk almost 100 years ago, he jailed dissenting journalists and called them terrorists. However, it seemed acceptable that the monarch and his prime minister be photographed with him during his visit to London. But not a footballer who was born to Turkish parents and has lived in Britain for the past five years.

From our political perspective, you or I could back down from the idea of ​​standing with such an autocrat. But we could also try to understand the choice made by Özil – and by another man in the offensive photo, Ilkay Gündoğan, the Manchester City player and another member of the German World Cup team, whose big -father also left Turkey for Gelsenkirchen. who was invited to London to meet Erdogan.

Özil's explanation for his decision was calm and lucid. "Not meeting the president would have disrespected the roots of my ancestors, which I know I would be proud of where I am today," he said. "For me, no matter who was president, it mattered that it was the president."

Had he played brilliantly at the World Cup, and had Germany made a respectable defense of the title? he helped them win four years ago, all of which would now be forgotten, or at least ignored. But he did not do it. Even though he was far from being the only one to blame for the team's disastrous performance, he was chosen as the symbol by Reinhard Grindel, the president of the DFB, who publicly wanted him before he to leave for Russia. who had been dissuaded by Joachim Löw, the head coach, and Oliver Bierhoff, the team's out-of-field manager

Löw and Bierhoff had the support of Frank-Walter Steinmaier, the President of the German Federal Republic. After the first row, Steinmaier met Özil, listened sympathetically to his story and published – apparently to Grindel's consternation – a joint statement with the player.

The failure in Russia has provided the excuse for renewed criticism, not just by Grindel and the social media keyboard warriors. Uli Hoeness, the president of Bayern Munich and winner of the World Cup during his playing years, has also seized. "For me, Mesut Özil has been a bad excuse for a footballer for years," he said. "He should be wondering when he won a tackle for the last time." Nothing about Thomas Müller, a player from Bayern who also disappointed in Russia. "19659003" In the eyes of Grindel and his supporters, I am German. I am an immigrant when we lose, "said Özil in a new statement Sunday." Despite paying taxes in Germany, giving facilities to German schools and winning the World Cup with Germany in 2014, I'm still not accepted in society. "

The case is symptomatic of a world under tension. During the World Cup, two Swiss players of Kosovar origin, Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka, were fined by Fifa for making the sign of the double Albanian eagle after having scored against Serbia. Enemy of Kosovo in the 1998-99 war. Even the ultimate champions were forced to listen to the complaints in their own country that the World Cup had been won by an "African" team. When a website tweeted a list of members of the France team with the name of each player accompanied by the flag representing the origin of his family, the back Benjamin Mendy responded by repositioning the list with each flag replaced by the tricolor flag. "Corrected," he added .

For German Islamophobes and the far right, Turkish immigrants like the Özils and Gündoğans are guest workers who have never done the right thing and returned. Some in Britain feel the same way about our Afro-Caribbean and South Asian populations: they worked in our hospitals, in our buses and in our sweat shops, and now it's time for them to go home. And yet, a team consisting of 11 black or mixed race players went to Russia and made pride in the idea of ​​a team from England. For once, multiculturalism seemed to take over

Unfortunately, in a polarizing world, the suspicion must be that everything is very thin. While France's celebrations faded last week, the team's cartoonist portrayed a woman telling her husband who was watching TV, "I thought the World Cup was over" and received the answer: "Yes, but the World Cup just started."