How a Soccer Star Sparked a Ferocious Debate in Germany
Mesut Özil has dramatically quit the national team, declaring: “When we win, I am German. When we lose, I am an immigrant.”
The soccer star Mesut Özil, a midfielder who now plays for Arsenal and helped Germany win the 2014 World Cup, was born in 1988 in Gelsenkirchen, an industrial city in West Germany, a grandchild of Turkish immigrants, and rose to national prominence in a country where few products of immigration do. When he announced in a letter posted on on Sunday that he was quitting Germany’s national team, citing “racism and disrespect,” he used words that will resonate in Germany for a long time. “When we win, I am German,” he wrote. “When we lose, I am an immigrant.”
