The last time in the German jersey: Mesut Özil 2018 at the World Cup game against South Korea in Kazan.
Picture: dpa
For integration and against racism and discrimination? The “Fall Özil” two years ago was the reality check for the DFB. The debacle was completely suppressed – and has not been resolved to this day.
DThese days, a fundamental German failure marks the second time. A 0: 2 against South Korea in the last group game of the World Cup meant the shameful out of the German world champions as bottom of the table in the preliminary round. And a socio-political debacle was added that summer: the “Özil case”. A case that troubled the country for months.
In those summer days, two illusions broke in German football. One is to be unbeatable as a world champion. And the other: to be considered an unbeatable master of integration in this country. Purely athletic, haughty and blinded by their own success, they had simply overslept international developments. From a socio-political point of view, however, the association’s credo of bringing together on the soccer field what is diverging in society proved to be a hopeless overwhelming task. The clash with reality on and beyond the field that German football experienced in those days was tough. The hardest of the past years and decades.
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