- Former Arsenal star has previously called for peace amid ongoing conflict
- A CDU politician demanded that Ozil return his 2010 Silver Laurel Leaf award
- 35-year-old called ‘anti-Israel’ by chairman of Jewish sports organization
Mesut Özil appears to deny the existence of the state of Israel in an inflammatory social media post, German reports say.
The former Arsenal star has long been an outspoken supporter of Palestine and in October called for an end to the dire conflict in Gaza, expressing his desire to “pray for humanity” and “pray for peace” in a message.
The 35-year-old has since used his platform X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram to repeatedly draw attention to the ongoing war, with a number of posts captioned with the hashtag “Free Palestine.”
But according to BILDÖzil’s Instagram story caused further controversy in his native Germany on Wednesday, but was then promptly deleted.
The former Real Madrid midfielder is believed to have shared a photo of a map of Israel with a large red cross through the state’s name, with the word ‘Palestine’ underlined in bold letters.
Mesut Ozil appeared to post a now-deleted map with Israel’s name crossed out and replaced with Palestine
The former player has previously expressed his support for Palestine in Instagram and X posts
The 35-year-old retired from football in March 2023 after playing for clubs including Arsenal
The German outlet accused the retired footballer of calling for “the destruction of the Jewish state” in response to the deleted post, while politician Julia Klockner of the Christian Democratic Union demanded on X that the former Germany international return his “Bundeskreis der Verdienste” – an award Özil never received.
Klockner later clarified that she was referring to the Silver Laurel Leaf, the highest German sporting award, which was given to the German team that won the 2010 World Cup after victory in South Africa.
Mail Sport has contacted Özil’s representatives for comment.
The chairman of Maccabi Germany, a Jewish sports association, Alon Meyer, also called Özil’s reporting “anti-Israeli” and called on the German Football Association to respond.
“Of course we hope that the DfB will also respond to this and publicly distance itself from Özil,” Meyer said in a statement on Wednesday.
As a member of the German team that won the 2010 World Cup, Özil was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf that year
Ozil (right) previously caused controversy for a tattoo that appeared to reference the far-right group Grey Wolves
Özil, who retired from professional football in March 2023, has not represented his country internationally since 2018, saying he faced “racism and disrespect” because of his Turkish heritage.
The player sparked outrage in his home country after a photo he took that year with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who later served as best man at Özil’s wedding in 2019.
Last year, Özil was accused of supporting the far-right Turkish nationalist organisation Grey Wolves, after sharing a photo on social media with a tattoo of a howling wolf and three crescent moons.
Martin Huber, secretary general of the Christian Social Union, described the former player as “a textbook example of failed integration”, for both his alleged support for the extremist group and his “indescribable, unbelievable” pro-Palestine message on Wednesday.