Mesut Ozil’s Arsenal Departure for the Good of All

Mesut Ozil Needs This Move

Not since the beginning of March has Ozil kicked a competitive football at Arsenal. A World Cup winner, former Real Madrid alumni and widely heralded as the best of his kind for years, consigned to mere training sessions.

You can believe that Ozil isn’t the right fit for Arsenal anymore, that certain characteristics of his game don’t suit and still find the situation wrong on many levels. The assumption that just because one feels Ozil shouldn’t be in the team that you also take pleasure from watching him exempt from playing is untrue. For some perhaps it is, just not for all.

He should be playing football. Now he can.

It’s the perfect scenario for him. At the age of 32, he has the dream of turning out for the club he holds most dear, in a city he adores, surrounded by people who love him. As far as moves go, this tailors to his every need. Of course, playing in the Premier League for the club he’s spent nearly eight years with would be the ideal, but it’s clear that ship has sailed.

Away from media attention that blew hot and cold, he will arrive in Istanbul a hero and leave as one, too. He probably needn’t kick a ball and he’ll still be lauded as a legend.

While ambiguity remains over whether he even wants to play football or not, this early termination dispels such notions. With £7m in the bank to come and six more months of training matches, he could easily have seen out his contract until the summer then given his goodbyes. It was the club’s decision to hand him that deal. They made their bed, and if he stayed, they’d have to lay in it.

It’s not yet known how much of the money owed will be paid out by Arsenal. From a footballing sense, it’s irrelevant. Ozil is leaving in search of minutes, surrounded by a homecoming that will lift the spirits of millions. Not least his own.