10 Things Arsenal Fans Should Know About Mesut Ozil

In light of Arsenal’s new big money signing Mesut Ozil, we at Football Friends have dug up 10 things that we think you should know about the 24-year-old star.

1) Born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Ozil signed for his local side Westfalia 04 Gelsenkirchen when he was just seven years old and represented Teutonia Schalke-Nord and Falke Gelsenkirchen before making his move to Rot-Weiss Essen.

2) He spent five years on the books of Essen and made a big impact, attracting Bundesliga side Schalke.

3) He signed at the Veltins-Arena in 2005 at 17 years of age and played 39 games in all competitions for the Blues and scored one goal.

4) Ozil then made a switch to Werder Bremen, the club where he would really make his name as a top player. As well as scoring 18 goals in his 108 games for the club, he also got his first cap for the Germany national side.

5) To date, the 24-year-old has scored 14 goals in 48 appearances for Die Mannschaft.

6) In 2010 Ozil was snapped up by Real Madrid for a fee of around €15m and in the three full seasons, as well as his two games before he left for London this season, he played 159 games for Los Blancos and scored 27.

7) Upon signing for the Gunners, he became the most expensive German football player of all time, thanks to the reported £42.5m transfer fee.

8) Ozil is third generation German, his grandfather moved from Turkey as a migrant labourer over 40 years ago.

9) The playmaker is a practising Muslim and recites the Quran before games.

10) Ozil is sponsored by Adidas, who themselves were founded in Germany.