Former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira has revealed how a former teammate was more 'special' than Cristiano Ronaldo – but the player made a “mistake” by leaving the club.
Khedira, 37, had a successful career at Los Blancos, winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey (x2), the Club World Cup, the Champions League and the Supercopa de Espana during his five-year stay in the Spanish capital.
To add to his success on the domestic front, he was part of Germany’s squad that won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil – although he pulled up in the warm-up ahead of the final and had to be replaced by Christoph Kramer on the team sheet.
During his playing days, the former midfielder shared the pitch with some of the greats, having won league titles at Juventus, Stuttgart as well as Madrid.
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The midfielder was teammates with Ronaldo when the Portuguese was arguably at his peak between 2011 and 2015 and later shared the pitch with him again following the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s move to Juve in 2019.
But it was his German compatriot Mesut Ozil, who Khedira believed “had everything”
“Everyone understands Cristiano [Ronaldo],” Khedira told Marca.
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"To win games, Cristiano was the man because he never failed. He was always there. We needed a goal, so the ball went to Cristiano.
“But the most special player for me was Mesut Özil. And I explain it with his departure.
"The day Mesut left, we were all saying to Florentino [Perez]: "But why are you selling him?" But we all said it, right? [Karim] Benzema, Cristiano, [Sergio] Ramos... Özil was an absolute genius; he was a real magician.
“I played behind him, and you gave him a bad pass, and he controlled the ball with ease... I have never seen a player with that class and that quality, really.”
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“I don't know, because there were Cristiano [Ronaldo] and [Lionel] Messi and also Xavi and [Andres] Iniesta, who, for me should have won a Ballon d'Or,” he added.
“But yes, Özil had that potential.
“And although he had a great career, it would have been different at Madrid. And he told me, that it was a serious mistake to leave Madrid, because he had everything here.
“The [Sanitago] Bernabéu loved him; he played like an angel... Really, Mesut [Ozil] played like [Zinedine] Zidane.
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“My idol was Zizou, and if you put both of them on YouTube and watch them... Mesut was like Zizou.”
Ozil left Madrid in 2013, signing for Arsenal, where he stayed for eight years before a brief stints in Turkey with Fenerbahce and Istanbul Başakşehir.
Topics: Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, La Liga, Champions League, Germany, Arsenal
Luke Davies