Fans of Arsenal will always remember Mesut Ozil fondly for his outstanding play. Still, his departure to Fenerbahce in disfavor left him with a complicated legacy, further complicated by the announcement of his retirement. Both were deals, one to bring back AC Milan’s Mathieu Flamini and the other to bring in Yaya Sanogo, a talented but injury-prone striker from Auxerre. The crowd of cheering fans was disappointed and frustrated.
Wenger’s “pleasant surprise,” a £42.5 million agreement for Real Madrid’s Mesut Ozil, came to fruition 48 hours later, giving the fans everything they wanted. It almost tripled Arsenal’s record spend in the transfer market and was the third most expensive acquisition in British football history.
Ozil scored Arsenal’s first goal in the 11th minute of their 3-1 victory against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on his debut after deftly collecting a long pass from Kieran Gibbs and setting up Olivier Giroud. “We will all have to examine whether he has false boots,” stated Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio afterward. That’s how well they fit: “like a glove.” That moment was only the
first of many more to come in the years to come. Ozil has always been a multifaceted character, excellent and awful. I need a double take and a double jaw drop. His technical prowess, though, is unparalleled. The things he accomplishes with the ball at his feet are beyond the abilities of most players. “
During his first two seasons in north London, his team won the FA Cup both years. It was sandwiched between two World Cup titles with Germany. Yet, he started to feel at home at Arsenal in his third year. His 2015–2016 campaign was a heady show of skill and originality.
Ozil contributed directly to a league-high 28 goals in 45 games during that season. He set a Premier League record with 19 assists, one less than Thierry Henry, and set a new mark with 146 chances created, the most in a single season since records were first kept by Opta almost two decades ago. On New Year’s Day, Ozil led Arsenal to a 2-0 victory against Bournemouth, leading Wenger to proclaim, “he has become an
absolutely amazing football player.” Nevertheless, Arsenal eventually fell short, enabling Leicester to win the Premier League championship by a 10-point deficit.
That seemed like a lost chance. And although Ozil was awarded Arsenal’s top Player of the Year at the end of it, he never touched those heights again, his performance slowly falling from one season to the next, the flashes of inspiration becoming more uncommon as the examination of his body language and application got more rigorous.
In 2018, he embodied the ups and downs of his Arsenal career, beginning with him receiving a new deal at an eye-watering £350,000 per week and finishing with him abruptly losing his position in the team. In between, Ozil lost Wenger at Arsenal and declared his international retirement after a turbulent World Cup campaign with Germany.
Emery finally restored him, such was his desire for wins, but it was a similar narrative under the Spaniard’s temporary successor Freddie Ljungberg, who dismissed Ozil following a display of petulance during a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, and of course under Mikel Arteta.
Ozil, appearing reluctant to conform to Arteta’s “non-negotiables” and unable to recreate his creative productivity of earlier seasons, was permitted to fade into the background, a costly drain on resources at a time when the club urgently needed them.
It is a tribute to his impact in better times, though, that despite three tough years in which he appeared irregularly, throughout his stint in the Premier League, he ranks second for indisputable opportunities, which will continue,” remarked Arteta back in January 2021. “It doesn’t matter whether he plays two more games, ten more games, or none. Everything he has done is there for the records and the club’s history. Nobody can debate that.”