Fenerbahce President Ali Koc counts Mesut Özil: “Leave advertising deals aside”
Mesut Özil has not yet been able to convince at Fenerbahce and recently sat on the bench a lot. President Ali Koc now makes him responsible.
President Ali Koc of the Turkish top club Fenerbahce has made playmaker Mesut Özil responsible to focus his full attention on the sporting success.
“Since the beginning of the season, Mesut Özil has been compared to Robin van Persie (at Fener from 2015 to the beginning of 2018, d. Ed.). He wants to play more. From now on he has to focus on his game and ignore his advertising deals.” , said Koc in a statement on the club’s own TV stationFenerbahce TV. “He has to think about how he can help Fenerbahce.”
Özil moved from Arsenal to Istanbul on a free transfer at the beginning of the year. With a goal and an assist in the first two Süper Lig games, the 33-year-old got off to a good start into the current season, and he also scored 1-1 in Frankfurt at the Europa League opener.
Mesut Özil: Fener boss Koc denies problems with coach Pereira
Since then, however, Özil has been following his form, sometimes just sitting on the bench and made an outburst of anger when he was substituted in the Europa League game against Antwerp in mid-October, for which he later apologized to the fans.
“Our coach also has to find a way to get the best out of Özil,” said President Koc. In the media, the 2014 world champion is said to have a tense relationship with Fener coach Vitor Pereira, but Koc denies this: “Contrary to the reports, there is no problem. Mesut is just dissatisfied because he only plays irregularly.”
Last Sunday, Özil scored as a joker in the ninth minute of stoppage time against Kayserispor with a penalty and saved Fenerbahce at least one point at 2-2. Overall, the former German national player is currently with four goals and one assist in 13 competitive appearances this season.
For Fener, where Özil is under contract until 2024, things are generally not going well. In the Süper Lig they are only in seventh place after twelve matchdays, the gap to leaders Trabzonspor is already ten points. In addition, the Europa League threatens to end after the preliminary round.