Mesut Özil and Bojan Krkic retire from football at the ages of 34 and 32, respectively. The former Real Madrid player announced this Wednesday through his social networks that he is ending his sports career, while the former Barcelona striker will appear before the media this Thursday at the 1899 Auditorium of the Spotify Camp Nou to confirm his farewell to active football. unveiled by Gerard Piqué.
The German made himself known at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. His good performance at the World Cup made Real Madrid set their sights on Özil. Sharing attack with Di María, Cristiano and Benzema, the midfielder was a key player in José Mourinho’s time with the white team, signing 27 goals and 81 assists in 159 games.
With the departure of the Portuguese coach and the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti, Özil was transferred to Arsenal for €47 million, the most expensive sale in the club’s history at the time. In north London he made 254 appearances, scoring 44 goals and providing 78 assists. After seven seasons, not counting for Mikel Arteta, he went to Turkey, where he has had neither success nor regularity in his stages at Fenerbahçe and Istanbul Basaksehir.
In the case of Bojan, after shining in the lower categories of Barça, he made his debut with the first team in 2007. At 17 years, one month and 20 days old, he became the youngest player to score with the Blaugrana elastic and his irruption led to cataloged him as the ‘new Messi’.
However, the pressure got the better of him. In 2008 he gave up going to the Eurocup and the competition with Messi, Eto’o, Henry, Pedro or Ibrahimovic made him leave the team where he was born in 2011. The striker has also worn the jersey of Roma, Milan, Ajax, Stoke City, Alavés, Montreal and Vissel Kobe, where he suffered a meniscus injury that ended his time in Japan.
