Germany have named their provisional national team squad ahead of the 2018 World Cup.
The squad includes Arsenal star Mesut Ozil and Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan who came under fire for meeting with president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier in the week.
Gundogan referred to Erdogan as being, ‘my president’, which technically is true considering he is also Turkish and eligible for citizenship.
Ozil and Gundogan are both German internationals born in Gelsenkirchen to Turkish families.
Both handed Erdogan signed shirts from their respective clubs and posed for photos with the 64-year-old.
DFB president Reinhard Grindel claimed Ozil and Gundogan have been ‘exploited’ for political gain.
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“The DFB of course respects the special situation for our players with migrant backgrounds, but football and the DFB stands for values that Mr Erdogan does not sufficiently respect,” DFB president Reinhard Grindel said.
“Therefore, it is not a good thing that our internationals have let themselves be exploited for his election campaign stunt. It certainly hasn’t helped the DFB’s integration efforts.”
Bierhoff said: “I still have absolutely no doubts about Mesut and Ilkay’s commitment to playing for the Germany national team and how much they identify with our values.
“They were unaware of the symbolism of these pictures, but we cannot endorse it, and we will discuss the matter with the players.”
Erdogan, in the UK as part of a state visit, is in the midst of a re-election campaign after he declared snap elections which will go ahead next month.
The meetup sparked outrage in Germany and the duo were given a warning by the German FA.
That did not stop them both being selected for the provisional squad.
Here it is! ? The provisional #DieMannschaft squad for the 2018 #WorldCup! ??? #ZSMMN pic.twitter.com/7HxNQaeU8s
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) May 15, 2018
Fellow Germany international of Turkish origin Emre Can did not make the cut, the Liverpool ace is out with a back problem but is expected to return in time for the World Cup.
Can faces a race against time to recover, regain match fitness and manage to convince Germany manager Joachim Low to select him.
