Arsenal outcast Mesut Ozil has received an offer from newly-crowned Super Lig champions Istanbul Basaksehir but, according to BILD, he has rejected the chance to sign for their city rivals Fenerbahce.
It says a lot about the demise of a German World Cup winner that absolutely no one was surprised to see him miss Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City – one of Arsenal’s most seminal results of the last few years.
Of course, a back problem was the official reason for Ozil’s absence.
Then again, with the disciplinarian Mikel Arteta taking a leaf out of Unai Emery’s book, it would have been a major shock to see the former Real Madrid star involved – even if he was fully fit.
Ozil still has a year left on his contract and has shown little desire to walk away even if he, like Gareth Bale at Real Madrid, has become something of a persona non grata at one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Then again, would you be so quick to walk away from a £350,000-a-week pay packet? Especially when you know that you would be very lucky indeed get such a wage ever again?
According to BILD, Ozil has rejected the chance to cut short his increasingly painful Arsenal career via a move to Fenerbahce.
It remains to be seen how he responds to Basaksehir’s offer, however, with a nouveau-riche side containing the veteran talents of Robinho, Emre, Martin Skrtel, Demba Ba and ex-Gunners favourite Gael Clichy becoming only the sixth club in history to win the Super Lig title over the weekend (90Min).
Basaksehir are closely tied, much to the chagrin of many a Turkish football fanatic, to the country’s divisive president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
If that name sounds familiar to Arsenal fans, well it’s probably because Erdogan was the best man at Ozil’s wedding.
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