Mesut Özil enters politics. The former player of Real Madrid, and 2014 World Cup champion with Germany, has been elected this Sunday as a member of the Executive Committee of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey's President, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports Efe.
At 37 years old, the Turkish-German former footballer Özil thus joins the president's 'A team', after being elected at the VIII Congress of the AKP, a party that has been ruling Turkey since 2002.
Founded by Erdogan in 2001 as a moderate Islamist, democratic, and conservative party, the AKP has taken an increasingly authoritarian turn in recent years.
After stating that about 60,000 party members participated in the Congress, the Head of State and Government presented his long tenure as successful.
Özil, considered one of the best midfielders of his generation, played for Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013.
As a member of the national team of Germany, he played 92 international matches, scoring 23 goals and directly contributing to Germany's victory in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Özil's relations with the German public deteriorated in 2018 after he met with Erdogan and gave him an Arsenal jersey.
Amid harsh criticism for that meeting, the world champion eventually resigned from the German national team.
The midfielder, with over 600 professional football matches, spent much of his career at Arsenal, Schalke 04, Werder Bremen, and Real Madrid.
It was in 2020 when he approached Turkish football and played for Fenerbahçé and Basaksehir, before announcing his retirement from football in March 2023.