Arsenal star Mesut Ozil has come under fire again after defending World Cup champions Germany crashed out of the tournament.
This time it was the German far-right that picked on the playmaker of Turkish origin.
German football reporter Raphael Honigstein tweeted that the attacks on Ozil have been ‘disgusting’.
They’re probably best ignored – they crave the attention beyond anything else – but the right-wing attacks on Ozil in Germany right now are are absolutely disgusting.
— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) June 28, 2018
It’s reached a whole new level with AFD politicians having a field day. Not just random trolls anymore. Bild, too, got in on the act.
— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) June 28, 2018
The right-wing, anti-immigration German party AfD have been busy using Ozil as scapegoat to blame the World Cup exit, conveniently using it to push their political agenda.
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AfD politician Uwe Schulz tweeted and later deleted this xenophobic message: “Our national team did not participate anyway.”
AfD press spokesman Christian Lüth tweeted “Ozil can be satisfied, congratulations Erdogan”.
#Özil kann zufrieden sein, Glückwunsch #Erdogan
— Christian Lüth (@christianlueth) June 27, 2018
Another AfD member, Jens Maier, meanwhile had the following to say, “We would have won without Ozil.” He shared a photo of the Arsenal player with the line “Satisfied, my President?”.
Ohne #Özil hätten wir gewonnen! #KORGER pic.twitter.com/srG5BQmpts
— Jens Maier, MdB ?? (@JensMaierAfD) June 27, 2018
The stats showed that Ozil did not actually have that bad a game, in fact, he setup seven chances from open play, a record for a single game in the 2018 World Cup.
The 29-year-old also completed the highest number of successful dribbles and made 94 passed with 85 percent accuracy.