Criticism, misunderstanding – end ?: How the DFB fails with Mesut Özil

Saturday, July 7, 2018

By Stefan Giannakoulis and Tobias Nordmann

In dealing with Mesut Özil, the leaders of the German National Football Team are fighting for the right word . The sensitivity of the subject and the insensitivity of the DFB prove a fatal quote from Oliver Bierhoff. And his interpretation.

Mesut Özil does not make it easy for fans of the national team and officials of the German Football Association. The photos with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were a mistake. What then – unlike Ilkay Gündogan who also smiled in the pictures – was silent, was a second more serious mistake. But is this a reason to reject more and more any sensitivity to the playmaker? If it is true, what Oliver Bierhoff says, that he just wrongly expressed, then the director of the DFB-Elf revealed at a very important time a serious deficit of competence: it lacks professionalism.

What he did not know is that his "waiver" phrase in a long, unhindered debate about playmaker triggers, is now hard to believe in the most powerful man around the national team. Finally, he himself stated that he authorized the statements after three DFB employees had read the interview. It does not seem a coincidence that Bierhoff publishes his sentence Özil Thursday ("Die Welt") and the explanation of misunderstanding (newspaper "Bild"), which was added only a day later, in two media of a company, which often have exclusive access Information on the DFB-Elf have. Bierhoff has since explained a lot, even on ZDF – but he apologized only a little.

Calculus? Or honest respect?

But his first words are still in the room and they have long since unfolded their effect. They said: "We have never forced the players of the German national team to do anything, but we have always tried to convince them for a cause that we have not succeeded to Mesut and in this regard, we should have considered to abandon athletically ". This statement is now just his vague "picture" -Eschuldschuldigung ("I'm sorry …") and his expressed in ZDF's request to believe him that he had chosen only the wrong words.

Is this a calculation? Or honest respect for Özil? The fact is that the discussions about the son of Turkish parents born in Gelsenkirchen led the overburdened DFB to the edge of the nervous breakdown. As messy as the national team had played in their disastrous preliminary round, so disrespectfully act leaders in dealing with Ozil. That's Bierhoff who said the debate before the end of the World Cup. And also for the national coach Joachim Loew the subject has been settled. He wanted, he said, to focus exclusively on the sport. Again and again, leaders and coaches in Russia stressed that the case does not overload the team. Did they do this against better knowledge? In any case, they did not recognize the explosive nature of the subject, or they did not want to recognize it – and aggravated it.

Does Özil have a future in the national team?

And they become more and more insensitive. Just like Özil himself, when he himself photographed with Erdogan in the election campaign, then refused to comment and started the discussion on the meaning and manipulation of the power of the image. What followed was and is an unfortunate debate about the good Germanism of "our" national team, accompanied by a scary racism and false accusations. Of course, Özil is not alone responsible for the World Cup, but it sounds sometimes. In a very weak divided and sporting football team, which had curved the drastically marketed slogan "The Team" to the limit, it was at 0-2 in the farewell debacle against South Korea still l? one of the most remarkable. Almost nobody wants to hear that. And those who do not differentiate, who believe that Germany without "Erdogate" would have probably successfully defended the title, making it a joker in the sheet when Bierhoff and a few national players gradually let it be known that Case was ballasted. 19659016] More information on this subject

This may be true. Of course, enlightened national players, their coaches and club bosses may not like the fact that one (in fact, of course, two, but Gündogan said as mentioned) of their circle next to 39, an aggressive leader against the opposition and the press. does not care about democratic principles, animated smiles, then silent and does not face his moral responsibility. But since the beginning of the affair on May 14, they have had enough opportunities to break free of this baggage. Only they did not use them. At least not enough

And now? What is the next? Does Özil have a future in the national team? Does he even want to play for a country that has accompanied him with skepticism for years and who now mostly rejects? Does he still want to play for an badociation that did not defend him clearly against racist attacks ? And what about the DFB? Does the team need 29 years to rebuild? Do Bierhoff and Löw still have the energy to integrate Özil into the team against any social resistance? Or was Bierhoff's double push a clumsy recommendation for a forced withdrawal from the playmaker? A sports confession from Bierhoff to Özil did not exist. And Özil? Quiet. Like almost always. He will regain reality by the end of August at the latest. When Löw appoints his first team after the World Cup trauma.