It’s not just Mesut Özil. All diaspora footballers face the same conflict | John McManus

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The hostility the Arsenal star has faced from Turkey and Germany epitomises the strain on migrant players who don’t fit the patriotic mould

Reinhard Grindel is the president of the German Football Association, and clearly doesn’t like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan very much. The anger he displayed after a meeting in May between the Turkish president and Germany’s star midfielder Mesut Özil unleashed a huge row that culminated in Özil’s retire from the national squad yesterday.

It was not the most savvy of decisions by Özil perhaps, posing for a photograph with a divisive leader who is accused of leading Turkey down the path of autocracy, and who has compared the German government to Nazis. Yet while Grindel might think he is taking a stand against Erdoğan, the Turkish government has seized on the incident as evidence of its long-standing claim that Europe is hypocritical and racist, and never treats Turkey fairly.

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/23/mesut-ozil-diaspora-footballers-migrant-players-arsenal-superstar-turkey-germany

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